Cake or Death and the Karma Police

Cake or Death's nice new graphics.

I got a comment on my last post (see below) from Kyle Roethle on the San Juan 24 Cake or Death, which finished second behind Full Moon in the Rum Run. Kyle's blog is http://actionyachting.blogspot.com, which I'm enjoying reading and will now follow regularly. Kyle also directed me to a posting on Pressure Drop (http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/content.php?3068-The-Real-McCoy!&s=cfaa0c5ae3e0d585cd3b0a3bc2987057). It seems the Karma Police were watching over Tipsy Gypsy after their smooth move at the Locks - they sailed into and were briefly caught in a fishing net!

Oops, We Did It Again...

Daniel stays warm and dry.

The 2012 Rum Run was déjà vu all over again, apart from the gray skies and a few light sprinkles. It started with Tipsy Gypsy cutting in front of everybody to be first out of the Locks on the way to Shilshole, just like last year. To put it politely, somebody has an extremely inflated sense of self-importance!

Regardless, Full Moon still had time for a (very) quick pit stop at the Shilshole marina before heading out to the starting line. With even more “fast” racers showing up than is usual on the lake, Full Moon requested to go in third start rather than square off against 29-33 foot J-boats, 37-40’ cruising boats, etc. Sometimes size does matter and Full Moon is not quite 25 feet long.

Tammy has time to update Facebook!

Full Moon crew Tammy “Yee-hah!” Cross, J “Coffee Geyser” Irons, Daniel “Tunes” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Wrong Course?” Mengedoht maneuvered for a port tack start but couldn’t find a big enough gap. Having to tack and then tack back to port didn’t make for a great start but Full Moon settled into a fast groove and managed to catch the lead boats within a few hundred yards. Amazingly, Full Moon then managed to lay the West Point buoy in a straight shot while putting a sizeable lead on the third start fleet and passing a number of second start boats including Runner, Poco Mas (T-bird), Fortis, and Zephyr!

J looks feisty as he eyes the competition.

After rounding the buoy, the mighty Equalizer was launched but with a big twist about a third from the bottom. Once the jib was down, J quickly freed the twist and Full Moon took off for Meadow Point on a very fast beam reach, rarely dropping below 7 knots. Full Moon managed to pass even more second start boats, dropped the Equalizer a shade early to make sure the crew could wrestle the nylon monster back aboard (it only got a little wet…), and was quickly around the Meadow Point buoy and off on a close reach toward the finish at Port Madison.

The first and second start boats had an extra leg back to West Point before heading to the finish. As Full Moon flew westward across the Sound, though, none of the boats behind appeared to be following. Had the Race Committee changed the course for third start? Surely we hadn’t passed that many second starters? After many agonizing minutes, it was finally clear that at least one boat had jibed a spinnaker around the buoy and was following us. Full Moon was so far in the lead, though, that we needed binoculars to clearly see the second place boat!

Those little white dots back there are the competition!

Approaching Bainbridge Island and trying to spot the Committee Boat, Full Moon’s eagle-eyed crew spotted a fishing boat instead, with a long string of nets right in our path. A big jog to the south upwind avoided catastrophe, though the fishermen appeared to be a little nervous about it. Those little white floats are truly hard to see and we hope nobody else got caught in the nets.

The Race Committee seemed a little surprised to see us so soon at the finish but recognized we’d been in third start and tooted the horn for first place and the Gold Duck. It always feels great to win, of course, but the margin of victory was kind of embarrassing, especially since we also passed so many second start boats. Third start was a reasonable decision, given some of the exceptional boats allowed into second start, but the Race Committee really needs to change the mix to make second start fair competition. The range of speed potentials is just too wide.

Daniel secures the Gold Duck!

In any case, the post-race raft-up was the usual fun and the rum drinks were very tasty (not for Daniel, of course!). After a nice lunch and some socializing, it was time to head back across the Sound. The wind had built up to over 20 knots out of the south, which provided an entertaining ride under sail, especially coming off the waves. A relatively short time later, it was time to drop the sails and motor into the locks and then home to Lake Union. As always, a good time was had by all!

The latest addition to the Duck collection.