The Slingshot Maneuver

Lots of boats were out enjoying the sun and wind!

The Sesame Street Duck Dodge featured mostly sunny skies and some fairly strong gusty wind. Full Moon crew Michael “Uh-Oh” Medina, Marcelle “Wardrobe Change” Lynde, Allison “Slightly Wet” Bahe, Adam “Popsicle” Michalak, Daniel “Twisted Mister” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Master of Disaster” Mengedoht went for the heavily favored buoy end of the start line on port tack but were a bit late and had to duck behind Zephyr coming on starboard. Zephyr then tacked immediately and was able to roll ahead to windward, the first time they have been ahead all year.

We must be gaining on somebody!

The first leg was fast but seemingly full of drifting power boats and a few brave kayakers. Full Moon overstood the lay line to the Aurora buoy, which was set farther south than normal but got a decent launch of the mighty Equalizer spinnaker. This proved a bit of a handful on the beam reach south but produced some great speed, up over 7.5 knots at a few points. Full Moon passed a few boats and gained on the Capri 25 Triple Time but, unfortunately, Zephyr maintained a comfortable lead.

 

That boy just keeps growing!

The Equalizer was reluctant to come down quickly and got a little damp but, worse, the pole got caught in the jib sheets (two weeks in a row!). Once sorted, Full Moon took off north on the long close reach to the Freeway buoy, holding off a hot VX-One 19’ dinghy and playing tag with Triple Time but still not able to close the gap on Zephyr.

The cabin boy pours some bubbly. Thanks, Michael!

After rounding the Freeway buoy, it was a straight shot upwind to the Aurora buoy. Unfortunately, the spinnaker repacking had not gone well and the Equalizer went up with a big twist. Before that could be cleared, the guy popped out of the spinnaker pole. That got sorted only to have the sheet come free from the clew! By this time, Full Moon was halfway down the lake and so the Equalizer was brought down to windward and the mess cleared away.

Post-race sunset. It was nice out there.

The next leg proved interesting as the line upwind to the Freeway buoy was directly opposite the line of boats returning to the finish line. Full Moon successfully avoided any head-on collisions and steadily gained on the J30 Slingshot. Approaching the buoy on port tack, there were a couple of third-start boats on starboard tack trying to round. Slingshot maneuvered behind them but Full Moon was able to quickly tack into a hole between boats and round ahead. Full Moon then took off for the finish line, gaining on Triple Time, which wasn’t far ahead, while working to hold off Slingshot. The boats finished in that order, with Full Moon 14^th as best we can tell. Zephyr was still well ahead and appeared to finish 10^th.

At least one boat really got into the theme. Nice job!