I been in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time*

Full Moon crew Michael “Mooner” Medina, Marcelle “New Refrigerator” Van Houten, Anne “Appropriately Dressed” Gustavson, Daniel “Mr. Clean” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Low Pole” Mengedoht set up well for the Red White and Blue Duck Dodge, on starboard tack in clear air near the middle of the line. This paid off for much of the first leg southbound to the AGC buoy until the very light wind started filling in a bit stronger near the Westlake shore, allowing multiple boats to get past.

Full Moon looking good at the start (bottom center).

The Equalizer was hoisted for the long leg north and allowed Full Moon to pass quite a few boats in extremely light breeze. A late drop kept Full Moon going to the last but there were a lot of boats rounding the Freeway buoy at the same general time, most of them larger, and Full Moon suffered in disturbed air for a while.

Full Moon is catching up a bit. (Black, blue and white spinnaker.)

On approach to the Aurora buoy, wind built a bit from behind and a large surge of boats were able to zip inside Full Moon to round the buoy ahead. The final leg upwind saw some give and take but no effective passing and Full Moon was relegated to somewhere around tenth place, though it was difficult to tell with a mix of similar boats from both second and third starts. So it goes sometimes in extremely light winds – you need to be in the right place at the right time! 

Lyrics from Right Place, Wrong Time by Dr. John

Close But No Cigar

The Pride Night Duck Dodge began with a light southwest wind and Full Moon crew Randy “Cheap Streaming” Olsen, Chad “Elysian” Harnish, Daniel “Union Man” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Senior Moment” Mengedoht were able to run down the starting line on port tack and then tack just before the starting horn. This was overall good strategy and, while it didn’t allow full speed to cross the line, Full Moon ended up in the lead or close to it. Full Moon stayed on starboard tack toward the middle of the lake before a relatively late tack toward the AGC buoy.

Full Moon (bottom left) after the start.

The wind had clocked around to the southeast to start the long leg northward. Full Moon broad reached under the genoa for a little while, then gybed and launched the Equalizer. Meanwhile, a white Thunderbird and the Ultimate 20 Mr. Nibbles (from second start) had gone much further east before gybing and were battling each other. They were slowly converging with Full Moon as we all approached the Freeway buoy. Fortunately, the Equalizer performed the usual magic and Full Moon was able to pull ahead to round the buoy in first place!

Full Moon leads around the Freeway buoy.

The next leg was a tight reach at first and Full Moon continued under spinnaker, though the extra sail area wasn’t super-efficient at that angle (we should have lowered the pole even more). The wind then began to shift forward and the Equalizer had to come down, a bit later than it should have. During the drop, Mr. Nibbles, the white T-bird, the San Juan 24 Great Escape and a Far East 18 were able to slip ahead to round the Aurora buoy ahead.

The sun poked through the clouds after the race.

The final leg was upwind but with highly variable wind strength and the game was on to find and stay in the best wind. The white Thunderbird had fallen behind, then threatened for a while but couldn’t get past Full Moon’s wind shadow and eventually tacked toward the Westlake shore. The Far East 18 made significant gains while appearing to have a straight shot to the finish line while Full Moon and Great Escape had headed more toward the middle of the lake and were clearly going to have to tack twice to cross the line. Meanwhile, the white T-bird had found some nice breeze closer to shore. In the end, the Far East 18 took first, Great Escape was second, the white T-bird (which is apparently named Makima) was third and Full Moon fourth, though very close behind. While not the desired result for Full Moon, this was great fun with tactics and strategy and the other boats truly earned their ducks.

Fun With The J-Boats

The wind was highly unusual for the Commodore’s Ball Duck Dodge, coming out of the southeast at the start. Full Moon crew Michael “Birthday Suit” Medina, Chad “Girly Bag” Harnish, Rob “Rookie” Lane, Daniel “No Pack” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Hard To Pass” Mengedoht had a mediocre start with all boats on port tack. Finding clear air was a challenge and it got worse as the wind faded approaching the AGC buoy, Full Moon dropping to ninth or tenth place.

There were a lot of boats out this week! (These were all behind us...)

The long leg north to the Freeway buoy saw the wind come and go with massive shifts and big lulls. A spinnaker would have been useful toward the north end of the lake and some boats did fly them, but the wind was unpredictable enough that Full Moon elected not to pop up the Equalizer, especially since it appeared it would be better used on the next leg. Meanwhile, Full Moon was hanging in there with the second start fleet, trading places with giant Lio Kai, two J22s, and the J24 Ragin Cajun.

Full Moon battles a J22 on the final leg.

Approaching the Freeway buoy, it was clear that the wind had shifted to the northwest and a spinnaker would not work. After rounding, Full Moon still hung in there, not close enough to the lead boats but trading places with others. For the final leg, the wind faded yet again and then filled sporadically from the west to southwest, some 270 degrees from during the start. Full Moon worked toward the middle of the lake where the wind seemed a little more consistent and proceeded to gain on and eventually pass Lio Kai, the three J-boats and a few others. At the finish, Full Moon managed what we believe was sixth place, not at all bad given the competition and the conditions.

The sun did peek through later on.

Full Boat

Full Moon at the start (just to the right of the U.S. flag).

Full Moon was bumped up to second start for the Duck Dodge after doing a little too well in third start the past three weeks. Crew Randy “Artefact” Olsen, Daniel “Bonk” Mengedoht, Robert “Ugly Building” Leykam, Lucienne “Jazz” Grace, Logan “Connections” Pulsifer, Hannah “Learning Experience” Fitzpatrick, and skipper John “Starboard!” Mengedoht set up on starboard tack. Relative giant Beneteau Lio Kai managed to get to windward and just slightly overlapped, limiting Full Moon’s ability to maneuver. Yells of “starboard!” yielded a slow reaction from port tack boats near the Committee Boat, a J22 tacking directly in front of Full Moon. A quick luff to starboard barely saved a rear-end collision but made for extremely close quarters with Lio Kai, Full Moon still a bit ahead but within inches to leeward. Fortunately, Full Moon was able to slowly claw ahead, and Lio Kai fell off to leeward, her bow nearly clipping Full Moon’s outboard!

Lucienne with Leo Kai just to windward during the start.

Shifty light wind near the Gasworks buoy led to some extra tacks and allowed some bigger boats to get by, dropping Full Moon from fourth to eighth place. Full Moon returned the favor with a few boats on the leg to the Aurora buoy but also fell behind a J22 with the final tack to the buoy, rounding in seventh place.

Robert focused on what's ahead.

As with last week, Full Moon was set up with a starboard spinnaker pole but the wind was out of the north instead of the more typical northwest. Consequently, Full Moon carried on a port gybe with the genoa for a while until able to gybe back and hoist the Equalizer. This allowed the J22 to gain a bit more and for the CF27 Gift Horse to remain ahead as well. However, Full Moon slowly gained downwind, eventually passing both the J22 and Gift Horse to move into fifth place. A conservative early drop allowed the two boats to catch up but not pass at the AGC buoy. Meanwhile, relatively large Solara was having spinnaker take-down issues, dropping them back.

John enjoys driving upwind.

Gift Horse tacked west for potentially stronger wind in the middle of the lake while Full Moon sailed straight for the finish line. Solara eventually got going and was faster but would need to tack to cross the finish line. In the end, Gift Horse crossed ahead by about 15 feet but Full Moon beat Solara to take fifth.

Daniel returns from the foredeck.

Cool Runnings

Full Moon crew Randy “Cleanup” Olsen, Michael “Strings” Medina, Anne “Layers” Gustavson, Daniel “Seven Words” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Strategery” Mengedoht took advantage of a fairly square starting line for the Band Night Duck Dodge, approaching the line on starboard tack. This paid off as the big Tartan 4300 to leeward intimidated the port tack boats into giving way, though not without drama as two boats collided while tacking a bit late… In any event, Full Moon continued on starboard for a bit, then tacked on the layline for the Freeway buoy, solidly in first place.

Daniel snags the prized gold duck sticker.

The big Tartan hung in there in the fairly strong breeze, along with Endeavor, a speedy Seascape 24, and a few others but Full Moon was still in first at the buoy and already catching up to second start stragglers. Heading for the Aurora buoy, Full Moon was not quite laying the mark and Endeavor was behind but a bit to windward with another boat not far behind. This called for a hard tack to duck Endeavor and cross in front of the second boat to make the buoy.

It was sunny but cold, especially after the race.

With the “turbo” pole preset to starboard in anticipation of the typical NW breeze and the wind having shifted to due north, Full Moon opted to travel a distance on port gybe with the jib rather than monkey around with everything on the foredeck. Then we gybed and hoisted the Equalizer with a good line to the AGC buoy. Meanwhile, Endeavor had traveled well to the east, sailing a “hotter” angle appropriate for their asymmetric spinnaker and bowsprit. When they gybed back, it set them up even with and to leeward of Full Moon, forcing Full Moon to change course a bit. However, this eventually brought them into Full Moon’s wind shadow, slowing them enough for Full Moon to swing across in front with a better angle to the buoy with our symmetrical spinnaker.

Three ducks in a row. We'll be pushed up to second start next week.

The drop went well but, unfortunately, the spinnaker pole snagged the jib sheet going around the AGC buoy, taking a while to clear. This allowed boats behind to gain a bit, but Full Moon still had a straight shot upwind to the finish line. Endeavor was off to leeward (not sure why) and would need to tack to cross the line. In the end, Full Moon crossed ahead by a few boatlengths for the gold duck with Endeavor second and an SYC J22 not far behind in third.