Ya Sure, Ya Betcha!

The Race Committee had to rough it this week - it wasn't that warm out.

Approaching the AGC buoy on the first lap.

Randy and Michael relax for a moment after hoisting the mighty Equalizer.

Cap'n John with his game face on.

The clouds briefly cleared away for the start of the Viking Night Duck Dodge and, with a decent wind out of the southwest, Full Moon went for the favored Committee Boat end of the line. Of course, so did a bunch of other boats, including some relatively large ones, and Full Moon was squeezed in a traffic jam. Crew Randy “Perfect Set” Olsen, Michael “Skirt” Medina, Marcelle “Ease N’ Trim” Lynde, Eileen “Kayaks” McHugh, and skipper John “Rolled Again” Mengedoht soon tacked away into clear air but not before giving up some ground to Summer Babe (J27), Selchie (T-bird) and some others which had done better with a clean start near the other end of the line.

Full Moon did well playing the wind shifts, though, and rounded the AGC buoy not too far behind Selchie and Runner (Ranger 26), which had returned to second start after trying third start for a race or two. The decision to do a jibe set of the spinnaker proved a mistake as the wind had clocked into the south but the mighty Equalizer still kept Full Moon in the game, not all that far behind the lead boats.

The Equalizer came down smoothly at the Freeway buoy and Full Moon headed west to the Aurora buoy. Unfortunately, the Aurora buoy was in a wind dead zone. Boats that drifted around just ahead then reached a wind line first and took off and Full Moon was suddenly no longer in reach of the race leaders.

The southbound leg was a battle between Full Moon and much bigger boats like the Buchan 37 Distance, the bigger boats having the edge whenever the breeze came on. Distance got ahead, but not by much, and Runner was also still in striking distance.

Launching the Equalizer ahead to head north, Full Moon held her own, had another clean drop at the Freeway buoy, and sailed a bit south of the rhumb line to provide some cushion at the dead zone remaining near the Aurora buoy. This paid off as Full Moon was able to round inside of both Runner and Distance.

Unfortunately, Runner then caught a puff of wind to windward and was soon close abeam with a Capri 25 just ahead and to windward of them. Full Moon held off Runner for a good distance but the Capri was able to pull ahead and this changed the wind dynamic just enough to allow Runner to forge ahead as well.

In the end, Full Moon was a still-decent ninth, with Runner ahead in seventh, Distance just behind in tenth, and rival Zephyr a shade further back in eleventh.