Slow Death at the Aurora Buoy

The wind was fairly strong and out of the south/southwest for the start of the Decades Night Duck Dodge. With starboard tack near the pin end (Westlake shore) strongly favored, Full Moon crew Michael “Jackson” Medina, Daniel “60s” Mengedoht, Robert “Pilsner” Leykam, Lucienne “Deck Ornament” Grace, and skipper John “Wet T-Shirt” Mengedoht ran the line on port tack, ducked a few boats, and tacked to cross the line in roughly tenth place. Calling tacks on the shifts proved challenging, and, with a fair amount of traffic, Full Moon ended up with a couple of extra tacks before rounding the AGC buoy, though Full Moon still got past a few boats on this leg.

Once around, Full Moon headed east for a short distance before gybing and hoisting the Equalizer. This enabled passing a few more boats, including some from second start, though it was difficult to get by some others. A conservative drop allowed the less risk-averse to close a bit from behind but getting the nylon monster down was a bigger priority.

The next leg should have been an easy and fast reach and so it was for a while. However, the Aurora buoy had been placed as far north as possible (not sure why) and in a relatively windless hole. Full Moon had taken a northly course (shortest distance between two points…) and this proved disastrous as the wind was worst closest to shore (or ships). While not exactly moving fast, other boats coming from further out were able to get by.

The final leg was a straight shot on a close reach, some boats staying closer to Westlake while Full Moon and some others decided the Committee Boat was closer – and maybe in better wind. In the end, Full Moon finished about eighth, not bad all things considered. Unfortunately, some rain interrupted the post-race cruising, though it was dark by then anyway!

Beat The Heat!

 

Daniel supports the WGA and SGA strikes.

With temperatures in the low 90s, it was great to get out on the lake for the Mardi Gras Duck Dodge. Full Moon crew Daniel “Long Drink” Mengedoht, Logan “Cranberry” Pulsifer, and skipper John “Clean Air” Mengedoht went in fourth start (no spinnaker), crossing the line very near the front of the fleet and then rolling the J24 Beagle with only a Harbor 20 slightly ahead to windward.

Full Moon rolls past Beagle (yellow/orange J24) at the start.

Once past the Freeway buoy, Full Moon did a few tacks to escape the wind shadow of other boats. Two more tacks brought Full Moon to the Aurora buoy, having passed several third start boats, including our old ex-rival Ignitor.

The Mengedoht Men at work, heading for the Aurora buoy.

Full Moon maintained good speed on the broad reach south until Ignitor caught up under spinnaker, creating a wind shadow. A quick dive to windward brought Full Moon behind Ignitor but in relatively clean air. At the AGC buoy, Ignitor took a slightly wide turn while dropping their spinnaker, leaving ample space for Full Moon to zip inside and ahead.

Result!

It was then a straight shot in nice breeze to the finish. In the end, Full Moon scored the Gold Duck, having led the fleet for the bulk of the race.

Bronze Me!

Full Moon was short on experienced crew for the Pirate Night Duck Dodge so we elected to forgo the spinnaker and race in fourth start. Crew Daniel “Everything Everywhere” Mengedoht, Emily “Halyards” Yen, Yuyu “Aaaahh!” Chiang, and skipper John “Close Quarters” Mengedoht had a decent port tack start and only had to duck one starboard tack boat after crossing the line. With a nice NW breeze, Full Moon had good speed northbound and nailed the rounding of the Freeway buoy.

Full Moon motors past the Committee Boat before the start.

After romping westward, Full Moon was put into a tight squeeze between a windward boat and a boat that tacked at the last second right before the Aurora buoy but emerged unscathed and in first place. Unfortunately, this didn’t last long as relative giant Solara came past early on the broad reach south. Then Runaway (Norlin 34) began to challenge from a path a bit closer to the Westlake shore. Full Moon hung in there for most of the leg but Runaway pulled ahead before rounding the AGC buoy.

The final leg was a straight shot to the finish line where Full Moon got the horn for third place!

Missing Target

Full Moon crew Randy, Daniel, Anne, and skipper John had a decent starboard tack start for the Pink Boat Duck Dodge until fouled by Moonshine to windward who inexplicably refused to turn closer to the wind. (The windward boat is the “give way” vessel, even in the Duck Dodge…) After suffering in the wind shadow of the bigger boat and falling back, Full Moon was able to tack behind Moonshine and find some clear air near the eastern shore before tacking back out toward the middle of the lake. Search as we and other boats might, the Freeway buoy was missing in action, so it was either never dropped or was snagged and dragged by another boat.

Full Moon chases the eventual winner SYC5 (J22).

With nothing else to do, Full Moon headed for the Aurora buoy. With the Equalizer’s “turbo” spinnaker pole preset for the longer starboard gybe, the NNE wind meant spending some time with just the main and jib downwind before gybing southward and hoisting the spinnaker. Full Moon was then able to pick off a few boats, including a Harbor 20 on port gybe, which was forced to turn to avoid Full Moon coming along on starboard.

Kari J (San Juan 28) had the inside line to the AGC buoy and a conservative spinnaker drop allowed the T-bird Makima to catch up. The rounding went well until the jib sheet was fouled on the genoa lead block, with no drive from the jib. This allowed Makima and then the Harbor 20 to get past. In the end, Full Moon was sixth, still a very respectable result out of 28 boats.