Schadenfreude

The mighty Mast Men, Daniel and Michael (with horns).

Daniel and Marcelle enjoying some end-of-summer sun.

Robert also enjoys a golden glow from the setting sun.

An inflatable turned into a giant loon proved hugely entertaining to watch.

Full Moon crew Michael “Danger” Medina, Marcelle “No Dip” Lynde, Robert “Simpler Times” Leykam, Daniel “T-1000” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Maestro” Mengedoht set up fairly well for a port tack start near the “pin” end of the starting line last evening but were foiled at the last second by another boat tacking just in front. Thus “Dirty Downtown Abby Night” began for Full Moon with a lot of “dirty air” from the many boats ahead. This condition remained for most of the first leg to the “Freeway” buoy, the boat feeling painfully slow. Worse, new rival Zephyr was slightly in front! Full Moon had a better buoy rounding, however, and managed to pull out ahead and then force Zephyr to tack away to get out of Full Moon’s wind shadow.

This set up a see-saw battle that was to continue throughout the two lap race, though Zephyr apparently felt the need to cheat to get ahead, completely failing to round the “Aurora” buoy on the first lap! Full Moon pulled closer under the mighty Equalizer on the first downwind leg and then it was back to a tacking duel upwind to start the second lap.

Full Moon had regained the lead to round the Freeway buoy the second time around but the spinnaker halyard had hung up on the steaming light on the front of the mast, in turn fouling the jib when Full Moon tacked to head for the Aurora buoy. This allowed Zephyr back in front, though not by a lot. Full Moon rounded the Aurora buoy right on Zephyr’s stern and soon gained an overlap to leeward under spinnaker. Full Moon could not pull ahead without running through Zephyr’s wind shadow but was content to set up for an inside overlap at the final “AGC” buoy, both boats managing to pass a few others on the long reach/run. A few hundred yards from the buoy, Zephyr’s skipper yelled out “Mine’s bigger!” no doubt referencing either his spinnaker or his boat (both are, in fact, bigger). Full Moon’s response: “Mine’s faster!”

Sure enough, Full Moon had the inside position at the buoy, made good job of dropping the giant spinnaker, and rounded clear ahead and pulling away. Zephyr was then solidly stuck behind Full Moon all the way to the finish. With all the close racing and increasingly wide variety of second start boats, we could not tell for sure what position this was but estimate somewhere about twelfth; quite good given the relatively poor start and what was essentially a match race with Zephyr! Full Moon also beat occasional rival Runner, which was, amazingly, about half a lap back.

It gets dark way too early these days, a reminder that the final Duck Dodge (not counting the November 3 Rum Run) is next week. This is always Martini Night aboard Full Moon, with an especially large crew to celebrate the end of the season. Cheers!

Big Shrimp!

The Ducktoberfest Duck Dodge began with an October-gray sky and a decent, if very shifty, northerly breeze. Full Moon crew Randy “Keep Pulling” Olsen, Judy “Whoops” Tiffany, Dave “More?” Pulsifer, Daniel “Trapped” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Yes or No” Mengedoht enjoyed a good start, right behind the Ranger 26 Runner. Approaching the Freeway buoy, Full Moon was still close to Runner and just ahead of speedy Scat. Unfortunately, new-rival Zephyr took advantage of a wind shift to pull ahead at the buoy.

Full Moon took a slightly higher line on the close reach to the Aurora buoy and pulled steadily ahead of Zephyr, leaving her behind for good and also getting ahead of Runner. The wind faded and shifted a bit near the buoy, causing Full Moon and several other boats to put in a couple of late tacks. Once around, the mighty Equalizer was quickly hoisted and Full Moon began to pull ahead of other boats. The course became nearly dead downwind and savvy Runner began a series of jibes, sailing more distance but at a faster pace. This allowed them to catch up right at the AGC buoy. However, they had troubles rounding and Full Moon popped right back ahead!

Unfortunately, Full Moon then had her own troubles with a couple of tacks and Runner regained the lead once more. Positions held steady for much of the second lap until disaster struck with the takedown of the giant Equalizer, which ended up mostly in the water. The retrieval process and cleanup after rounding the final buoy allowed the Buchan 37 Distance to get by, though with the increasing wind favoring the bigger boat, Distance would likely have gotten by anyway. In the end, Full Moon was once again tenth, proving we are, if nothing else, fairly consistent. Still, all of the Thunderbirds and J22s were behind and all the boats ahead except Runner rated faster, so Full Moon actually did quite well. Meanwhile, the German beers were ice cold and delicious!

Jammie Time

The sun dips down too early these days but it sure was nice out there!
Art Teller photos

The Pajama Night Duck Dodge served up sunny skies and a nice warm breeze from the north to encourage lightweight sleepwear but it appears most of Seattle sleeps in teeshirts and shorts. Full Moon crew Art “Bandaid” Teller, Katie “Pale Ale” Freels, Don “Porter” Caffrey, Chuck “Black Butte” Weldy, Daniel “Coke Control” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Corona” Mengedoht were similarly attired apart from the skipper’s sexy nightshirt.

With the first leg set up to the “Freeway” buoy, the starting line favored the right side but a port tack start on the left looked like a straight shot to the buoy with no tacks. Full Moon went for the port tack approach rather than risk being sandwiched in the starboard tackers and unable to tack out. This worked to plan, once free of a few others with the same idea, though the boats that nailed the start on the right still had a small lead.

Approaching the Freeway buoy, Full Moon was in good company with Scat just ahead, the Santana 20 Sushi (moved up from 3^rd start this week) just to port with an inside overlap, and Runner not far behind. Fortunately, new rival Zephyr was farther back and would remain quite far behind for the remainder of the race. After rounding the buoy, Full Moon continued to hold off Runner while crossing tacks with Scat. Sushi stayed just ahead, though, and Full Moon would need to work hard to beat her ex-third-start rival.

The mighty Equalizer went up quickly for the downwind leg and Full Moon passed a boat or two but also got passed by the relative giant (36’) Mata Hari. The second lap continued much the same way until the second spinnaker run where Full Moon finally overtook Sushi for good, picked off a J22, and nearly caught both a blue Thunderbird and the J29 Salsa. Salsa should have been much farther ahead at this point (they rate much faster and have at least two second-start gold ducks this year) so Full Moon was sailing well!

After rounding the AGC buoy to head for the finish, Full Moon initially suffered in bad wind from boats ahead (this is what happens when you nearly catch bigger boats!) but held off Sushi to officially place tenth, an excellent finish in a large fleet full of fast boats. 

Cool Runnings

"Shades" and "Fleece" are having a great time!

The Hat is very stylish, no?

The Shirt works to keep Zephyr from getting by to windward.

After a weekend of record-breaking heat, Tropical Night was, unfortunately, cloudy and maybe 70 degrees at best. Of course, this didn’t stop Duck Dodgers from donning tropical attire and enjoying the free beer dispensed from the 48 Degrees North “island.” Full Moon crew Randy “The Hat” Olsen, Art “The Plaid” Teller, Ian “The Fleece” Mengedoht, Daniel “The Shades” Mengedoht, and skipper John “The Shirt” Mengedoht lined up near the heavily favored Westlake end of the starting line but got stuck in the traffic jam, resulting in a relatively poor start.

The first lap went quite well with four beer cups scored at the floating island, a speedy spinnaker run, and the passing of a number of competitors, including all of our old rival boats (Shogun, Ignitor, and Fortis). Heading for the beer island on the second time around, Full Moon was right on the transom of the San Juan 28 Zephyr. After buzzing the island but coming up dry (they ran out!), Full Moon did a quick jibe and came out a bit ahead of Zephyr with a brief delay launching the Equalizer to sort a twisted spinnaker pole. For some reason, Zephyr then seemed determined to harass Full Moon, violating a rule or two in the process, and, at one point, draping most of their spinnaker over Full Moon’s rigging! Zephyr did manage to pull back out in front, though they certainly didn’t make any friends on Full Moon.

As if that wasn’t quite enough, the Ranger 26 Runner established a late inside overlap at the end of the run and began screaming for room at the buoy. Since the overlap not achieved until way too late (the current racing rule is three boatlengths out), they were not entitled to room and Full Moon squeezed them out. This, after all, is racing and Full Moon was abiding by the rules. It was disconcerting, however, to have two conflicts with boats in a relatively short time. Is Full Moon so good that we are now a target? Nah, we've never been that good!

In the end, Full Moon finished about tenth. It appeared that all Thunderbirds and all J24s were behind us, too, which is always nice. Next up: Pajama Night!