Super Sunday!

Lake Union not long before the race start!

The wind was nearly nonexistent before the start of the Superbowl Sunday Goosebump race, just enough to move. Full Moon crew Randy “Triple Jibe” Olsen, Michael “No. 3” Medina, Eileen “Legion of Boom” McHugh, Daniel “Perfect Pack” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Low and Slow” Mengedoht set up for a port tack start near the “pin” end of the line, with excellent timing for once. Unfortunately, and inexplicably, there was no starting horn from the Committee Boat. Full Moon, Tipsy Gypsy, Nimble, Poco Mas and one or two others all crossed the line anyway only to turn around to restart as the horn sounded a full minute and half late! Fortunately, the wind had filled in enough to make this possible and Full Moon ended up in decent shape, briefly ahead of the fastest boats, though well behind speedy little Cinc-O-Sink, which had wisely chosen to stay back near the starting line.

Full Moon is too hard to see but is heading for the orange buoy for the start, just left of the Aurora Bridge. Glad the wind filled in a bit!

The line to the Freeway buoy was a straight shot on port tack for Full Moon, which rounded in fourth place not far ahead of Poco Mas, thanks partly to Distance allowing Full Moon to tack inside and round the mark. The line to the Aurora buoy then looked like a straight shot on starboard tack but the wind was clearly lighter near the buoy and Full Moon sailed a higher course to buy some room in case the wind shifted. Big but aptly-named Nimble and 33-foot Tipsy Gypsy easily slipped past on this leg (as they should) but the C&C 41 Surt had to work for it, finally getting by just before the buoy as all boats put in a couple of tacks to get around.

The Equalizer went up smoothly with the pole to starboard, anticipating a westerly shift moving south down the lake. Unfortunately, the wind did not cooperate and, after delaying far too long, Full Moon jibed the nylon monster and shifted the jib to the starboard side. Poco Mas and the Ranger 23 Blazing Zipper sailed smarter, jibing sooner and sailing higher angles for more speed in the light air. Surt, on the other hand delayed their jibe way too long, eventually losing the breeze altogether close to the Westlake shore. Naturally, the wind shifted back, and Full Moon jibed again, though the jib stayed in place in anticipation of yet another jibe. That final shift never came and, while Full Moon rounded the AGC buoy just ahead of Poco Mas and Blazing Zipper, the jib could not be hoisted until the spinnaker and pole were down.

Poco Mas and Blazing Zipper both pulled ahead just past the buoy and, halfway up the final leg, giant Surt came roaring by. In the end, while Full Moon gained back some distance on Blazing Zipper, Poco Mas was fifth, Surt sixth, Blazing Zipper seventh, and Full Moon eighth, not bad for being in the first start fleet. Cinc-O-Sink managed third, just ahead of Tipsy Gypsy. Meanwhile, partly by virtue of sailing in every race, Full Moon and Poco Mas are now in a tie for fifth place overall in the series, 4 points behind Cinc-O-Sink.