Auspicious Beginning?

 

Full Moon is seen at the left, not long after the start.

Full Moon wasn’t supposed to make it to the first Duck Dodge of 2025 but skipper John “New Toy” Mengedoht got home from a business trip just in time to gather sons Ian “Tactical Ballast” Mengedoht and Daniel “Straight, No Chaser” Mengedoht to join the race in fourth start (no flying sails).

The Mengedoht boys enjoying incredible early May weather.

Unfortunately, the wind was nearly nonexistent, coming weakly out of the south before the start, fading to zero, then reversing to come sporadically and very weakly out of the north. This led to a massive cluster of boats from all the starts barely moving, if at all, struggling to get to the AGC buoy at the south end of the lake. The boats that could fly a spinnaker tried them but with very limited results – a spinnaker is of no value if it won’t fill.

Daniel secures the Bronze Duck from the race committee.

Somehow, Full Moon managed (mostly) to keep moving. The wind returned to a barely felt southerly on approach to the buoy and Full Moon slipped into a gap to go around. Clearing other surrounding boats plus those still heading for the buoy was a challenge but then the wind began to fill in from the north, ultimately sending Full Moon on a fast romp upwind.

One more duck on the mast... We're running out of room!

This continued all the way to the Freeway buoy where the wind faded a little and shifted into the west, setting Full Moon up for a beam reach to the finish line. With the long drift southward, it was difficult to gauge how we were doing but Full Moon received the horn for third place and the Bronze Duck!