Inconsistent Shift

Cap'n John catches flies while watching the Windex as Dave and Daniel hang on upwind.

Judy shows off the Big Hat for Wild West Night.

J-boats, dead ahead! (Slingshot in red)

The Hot Tub boat was out again enjoying the sun.

The Wild West Duck Dodge proved wild indeed with strong, gusty wind at the beginning and one very serious t-bone collision that nearly resulted in a sunken boat, though, thankfully, no injuries were reported. Full Moon crew Art “Water Boy” Teller, Dave “Trapped” Pulsifer, Judy “I’m Pulling!” Tiffany, Daniel “Beer Anyone?” Mengedoht and skipper John “Sneaky” Mengedoht were a bit early for the start and, even after a doughnut to kill time, ended up nearly at the pin before heading up to cross the line. The bad news is that this was the disadvantaged end of the line. The good news is that this was well away from the dense traffic at the other end!

The first leg to the Aurora buoy included one full round-up in a gust and a couple of painful extra tacks near the buoy but otherwise went well. The wind was strong enough that any plans to fly the Equalizer on the northbound leg were abandoned and the bulk of the trip to the Freeway buoy was spent swapping over to the standard pole and spinnaker while still making somewhat decent speed with just the jib and main.

The Aurora buoy was set very far north, somewhat close to a barge, and in the usual zone of light wind. Full Moon stayed above the direct line to the buoy and was able to nip right around, passing Runner (Ranger 26), Iolar (Olson 25), and several other boats in one easy move. Heading back south upwind, Full Moon held off any challengers from behind while gaining a bit on a J24. The wind, meanwhile, had gone a fair bit lighter, though with lots of random shifts and puffs to provide some frustrating driving conditions.

After rounding the AGC buoy, the shifty wind made unplanned jibes a constant threat until things settled down into a beam reach in the north half of the lake as the wind clocked into the NE. The Equalizer would have been helpful in the now-lighter breeze but the ancient orange chute still got the job done. Rounding the Freeway buoy and then heading west to the Aurora buoy, Full Moon was not far behind the J30 Slingshot and still well ahead of rivals such as Zephyr.

Heading for the finish line, a spinnaker would have been helpful at first, though the wind angle changed to a very tight reach as Full Moon headed south. Slingshot stayed ahead under spinnaker but barely cleared the end of the finish line. In the end, Full Moon was about 12^th with Runner and Iolar a few places back and Zephyr a full ten boats behind. The thundershowers that had been forecast never appeared and the sun remained out until well past the end of the race. Wind and sun two races in a row!

A fun time-lapse of the race from Gasworks Park can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_nAc0X-2Gqs.