Low Speed Chase

Chuck, John, Art, and Daniel enjoying another sunny Sunday.

Goosebump Race No. 2 promised slightly more wind than the first race but the start was still a parking lot of barely moving or stationary boats. Full Moon crew Randy “iPhone” Olsen, Art “Noise-Cancelling” Teller, Chuck “Birthday Boy” Weldy, Daniel “Blue Box” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Slow Ride” Mengedoht opted for the Committee Boat end and, though pinned for awhile by the Hobie 33 Payara, this paid off very well when a little breeze finally showed up right in Full Moon’s path.

By this time, Cinc-o-sink (505 dinghy) was in the lead with lightweight Perfectly Strange (Pocket Rocket 22) just behind. Tipsy Gypsy (Soverel 33) managed to catch up before the Freeway buoy but Full Moon rounded in fifth, still ahead of the really big boats.

The mighty Equalizer spinnaker was then launched, enabling Full Moon to stay close with Tipsy Gypsy and to hold off The Black Knight (Beneteau 36.7), at least for awhile. Unfortunately, jibing the spinnaker at the Aurora buoy went awry and the delay getting things sorted allowed The Black Knight, Thunderbird Selchie, and J109 Tantivy all to slip past. Once the nylon monster was flying again on a nice tight reach, Full Moon began to chase down Selchie but was soon trapped in a sandwich between Selchie to windward and Tipsy Gypsy to leeward. The bad news was that Full Moon could not get enough separation to gain further on Selchie but the good news was that Tipsy Gypsy also could not get ahead of Full Moon.

This scenario continued most of the way to the finish line when the big Sabre Yankee III appeared, attempting to roll poor Full Moon to windward. Full Moon headed up a bit to thwart this tactic and, in the end, Selchie was sixth, Full Moon an excellent seventh (given the competition), Yankee III eighth, and Tipsy Gypsy ninth. Rival Zephyr was much farther back, finishing about twelfth.

Congratulations to Cinc-o-sink, which again placed first, and to The Black Knight, which managed to squeak past Perfectly Strange just before the finish to score second.