Another Great Start...

Just like a cell phone advertisment - count the bars! (Art Teller photo)

It's hard to keep the boat balanced in such strong wind... (Art Teller photo)

Full Moon crew Randy “Halyards” Olsen, Art “Jamaican” Teller, Michael “Cheap Drunk” Medina, Daniel “The Quiet One” Medina, and skipper John “Big Enough” Mengedoht were well positioned for the start of Goosebump Race No. 5 until a wave of much larger boats essentially shut down the wind. Once the monsters were past, Full Moon recovered and had a good first leg upwind to the AGC buoy, picking off Shogun and several other boats which had been smart enough to avoid the big dogs (but not fast enough to hold off Full Moon!).

Full Moon maintained good speed on the reach to the Cove buoy, pulling farther ahead of boats behind, though only passing two boats and not really gaining on the leaders. Rounding the buoy, the giant Equalizer spinnaker rose to the occasion and Full Moon began to reel in 42 foot Yankee III, Tenacious, and a speedy dinghy, all sailing a “hotter” angle toward the middle of the lake but into weaker wind. As all three jibed back toward the Freeway buoy, Full Moon had pulled in front by some 75 yards and into 7th place!

Heading on a tight reach to the Aurora buoy, Yankee III and Tenacious began to gain slowly and it was unclear if Full Moon could remain ahead all the way around and to the finish line upwind. It was painful to watch and Full Moon used every scrap of wind but the bigger boats had their way, along with the pesky dinghy, using the light wind to its advantage and relegating Full Moon to a still-good 10th place finish. Shogun had managed to come on strong to take 11th but Fortis was a long way back, finishing some ten minutes later.