Full Moon crew Art “One More Time” Teller, Chuck “Laptop” Weldy, Dave “Silver Bullet” Pulsifer, and skipper John “Crazy Ivan” Mengedoht pulled out the small “#3” jib for the first time in years as the wind blasted at 18 knots for Duck Dodge No. 1. After a decent start, Full Moon stayed on the edge of control upwind but managed to hang in there with most of the fleet, rounding the Aurora buoy with old rivals on Fortis.
Launching the ancient standard spinnaker rather than the giant Equalizer, Full Moon flew downwind, even popping up onto a plane a few times, surfing the small Lake Union waves. The takedown wasn’t pretty but the foredeck was quickly sorted (thanks, Art!) and Full Moon returned upwind to complete the first lap.
Fortis was close behind after rounding the Freeway buoy and threatening to get past but Full Moon proved tough to get by. Approaching the Aurora buoy, Full Moon just held onto the layline while Fortis needed a few extra tacks and Full Moon was ahead for good.
The second spinnaker run was even better than the first and the chute came down cleanly for a smooth rounding at the AGC buoy. The final upwind leg proved uneventful except for catching a Thunderbird just before the Freeway buoy. (Always a pleasure!) One final spinnaker run took Full Moon across the finish line about tenth (we lost count) out of well over twenty boats – an excellent finish on an evening that favored the larger boats. More importantly, it was a fun and entertaining beginning to the summer racing season and a good time was had by all.
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