Location, Location, Location!

Gaining on Surt with the big red spinnaker. Objects in the camera are closer than they appear...
Randy Olsen photo.

The wind completely died just before the start of Goosebump Race No. 2, leaving boats in a wide variety of positions and distances to the start line. Full Moon crew Art “Red Lobster” Teller, Randy “Sea Ray” Olsen, Chuck “Big Lips” Weldy, Daniel “Cryogenics” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Are We There Yet?” Mengedoht did their best with what tiny and unpredictable puffs of wind appeared, “tacking” several times before settling in with an all but imperceptible southerly to ooze across the line.

Quite a number of fast boats were behind Full Moon at this point but, unfortunately, quite a number of others had been a little closer to the starting line and had drifted a bit farther down the course. Finally, the wind began to fill in toward the Westlake Shore and all the bows pointed west. The first boats to catch the wind would have a huge advantage. The end result was Full Moon about mid-fleet and mixing it up with 41’ Surt, which was fun but short-lived.

After a quick reach to the “Cove” buoy, Full Moon launched the mighty Equalizer and nearly caught up to speedy Runner and, surprisingly, Surt, but could not manage to get by anyone. The nylon monster came down cleanly at the “Freeway” buoy but Surt had some issues and Full Moon swapped positions once again. At the “Aurora” buoy, Surt came roaring back and soon zipped by for good and the race was then on for Full Moon to hold off a big Columbia 40 and a Catalina 36, both determined not to lose to the little guy in front. Try as they might, though, Full Moon remained ahead at the line to finish 12th. Starts are always crucial, this one much more than most, but it was all a lot of fun and good racing once the wind appeared.