Bolero Dance

Goosebump Race No. 3 was on yet another rainy Sunday, though the forecast 15-25 knots winds proved to be more on the order of 5-10 with gusts to 15. Full Moon crew Randy “Layers” Olsen, Tammy “Squishy” Cross, Marcelle” Dribbles” Lynde, and skipper John “Rainman” Mengedoht opted for a port tack-pin end start in hopes of avoiding the inevitable pile-up of boats at the opposite end of the line. Despite having to duck behind a few starboard tack boats, this strategy worked pretty well and Full Moon rounded the AGC buoy about sixth.

Full Moon managed to roll one boat on the reach to the Cove buoy but a blue T-bird got by Full Moon on the inside right at the buoy. Once the mighty Equalizer was launched, though, Full Moon pulled back ahead and ended up mixing it up with relative giants Bolero (40’ +/-) and Surt (42’), neither of which were flying a spinnaker. Full Moon got past both big boats but got passed in turn by a J33 and 30' Tenacious just before the Freeway buoy.

On the tight reach to the Aurora buoy, first Surt and then Bolero roared past as expected but Full Moon managed to stay close to Bolero on the next long beat to start the second lap. On the second downwind run, Full Moon once again got past Bolero to move into seventh place, only to have Bolero return the favor one last time on the leg to the Aurora buoy.

Meanwhile, a red T-bird had been making some gains from behind. On the final leg to the finish, the T-bird tacked toward the Westlake shore, perhaps hoping for a better wind angle. Full Moon stayed toward the middle of the lake but with a close eye in case a tack to cover would be necessary. In the end, the T-bird wasn’t a threat and little Cinc-O-Sink beat the T-bird for ninth behind Full Moon in eighth. Old rival Ignitor finished fifteenth. It was great to beat all the Thunderbirds (there was also a white one - collectively they looked very patriotic!) and, for that matter, all boats under 30'. Congratulations also to our friends on The Black Knight who appeared to take first place!