Secret Identities

Looking south down the lake on the first lap. We're gaining!

Full Moon crew Randy “Zero Percent” Olsen, Chuck “Butt Hitch” Weldy, Katie “Overtime” Freels, Daniel “Club Coke” Mengedoht and skipper John “8.5” Mengedoht donned masks to protect their secret identities for the Super Hero Duck Dodge Tuesday, enjoying gorgeous weather and a fresh NW breeze. Maneuvering for a port tack start, Full Moon had to duck Zephyr on starboard tack, which then immediately tacked to windward. Full Moon put the lee bow effect to work, though, and eased out ahead, making a straight shot to the Freeway buoy with good speed.

Full Moon rounded the buoy right on the transom of the J30 Slingshot, was briefly trapped to leeward, and then tacked. Zephyr and a J27 tacked closer to the buoy to pull abreast to leeward but Full Moon slowly pulled out ahead, leaving Slingshot behind as well. Full Moon did especially well with the puffs on the leg past Gasworks, gaining on boats ahead, including speedy Scat, and putting more distance on the boats behind. Meanwhile, a barge and tug emerged from under the Fremont Bridge, helping affirm an initial decision to keep a southerly line.

Approaching the Aurora buoy (after the barge was gone), a hail of “Starboard!” was heard, followed shortly after by a loud thump as the J24 J’Estalt on port tack t-boned the J22 Freedom. Both boats kept going so we assume there were no injuries but it serves as a reminder to keep a good lookout on such a crowed lake!

A J24, Zephyr, and Slingshot trying to keep up on the first run.

The mighty Equalizer went up smoothly after going around the Freeway buoy and Full Moon enjoyed great speed with the wind shifting between a beam reach and full run. The takedown was a little tougher with the wind on the beam but things were quickly put under control to head back north upwind. Approaching the Committee Boat, Scat appeared on starboard tack, coming from the east, but Full Moon easily crossed ahead. Not sure why Scat went that direction but it was great to be in front of them!

The second lap went much like the first with Full Moon pulling farther ahead of all the boats behind except for tenacious Scat. Heading downwind under spinnaker, a quick count showed Full Moon to be up to fourth place, though the first three had a big lead. Unfortunately, the spinnaker takedown resulted in the jib sheets trapped under the spinnaker pole on deck and Scat nipped by as Full Moon struggled to get the genoa flying properly. There was no catching Scat upwind and Full Moon crossed the line a still-excellent fifth with a big gap to Distance in sixth. A J27 was next, followed by arch-rival Zephyr in eighth.

A full moon rising over the post-race raft-up.