Fleece Togas

Distance will have to work hard to catch this bunch!

Cloudy skies and cooler temperatures returned for the first time since late June for the Toga Night Duck Dodge but there was decent wind. Full Moon crew Randy “Halyards” Olsen, Michael “Twisted” Medina, Marcelle “Layers” Lynde, Daniel “Packer” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Comeback” Mengedoht were well positioned for a good start until the Pearson 30 Tenacious tacked just in front. Full Moon suffered in the resulting wind shadow and then just couldn’t seem to get going, rounding the Freeway buoy in a dismal seventeenth place.

Tacking immediately at the buoy for a clear lane, Full Moon then began chipping away at the boats in front, passing quite a few. Distance (Buchan 37) rolled by to windward approaching the Aurora buoy but Full Moon returned the favor, slicing inside as Distance made a wide turn tacking at the mark.

The Equalizer, aka Mighty Isis, does it's thing.

The Equalizer was quickly launched to good effect as Full Moon passed more boats and stayed ahead of Distance. Approaching the AGC buoy, Distance poked inside (with no rights since overlap wasn’t established until nearly rounding the mark) but speedy Scat had strayed far to the right, allowing Full Moon to easily slide in front and into ninth place. Heading back upwind, Full Moon stayed hard on the wind while Distance and Scat cracked off a bit for more speed. This cost them both as they had to tack to cross the start-finish line to complete the first lap while Full Moon easily cleared the Committee Boat and pulled ahead.

And that wasn't the fastest - we saw over seven knots under spinnaker.

The wind went a bit light crossing the lake toward the Aurora buoy and Distance fell behind. Scat did better in the light stuff and rounded the Aurora buoy just behind Full Moon. The Equalizer bought a little cushion heading south but, unfortunately, the drop at the AGC buoy was problematic and Scat caught back up. Once again, Full Moon stayed hard on the wind while Scat eased the sheets a bit for more speed. Unfortunately, this time Full Moon could not quite lay the Committee Boat and Scat was able to tack in front to take seventh with Full Moon very close behind in a still-excellent eighth.