Double Trouble

Verity displays some nice duct tape creativity.

The Duct Tape Duck Dodge featured light to non-existent wind out of the southwest and slowly clearing skies. Full Moon crew Michael “Everything is Awesome” Medina, Marcelle “Beautiful Bellevue” Lynde, Tammy “Ridiculous Redmond” Cross, Chuck “Cheez-Its” Weldy, Daniel “Movie Magic” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Vodka!” Mengedoht set up for a decent start near the buoy end of the starting line but a large blue boat named Asystole (which means no cardiac activity) had the same general idea. Unfortunately, they were a bit late tacking for the starting line and in the process they delayed Full Moon as well.

Tammy, Michael, and Daniel enjoying the first upwind leg.

Once moving the right direction, Full Moon found some stronger wind on the eastern side of the lake and put this to good use to get past a few boats, including rival Zephyr. Approaching the AGC buoy, a different Zephyr struggled to make the buoy on starboard tack (and didn’t make it) as Full Moon successfully rounded outside and to windward. Rival Zephyr then elected to skip the buoy altogether rather than swing around outside other boats approaching on starboard tack. This was cheating, of course, for both Zephyrs, but it put them both in front of Full Moon.

Full Moon passes "non-rival" Zephyr as the Equalizer collapses.

After clearing the buoy area, Full Moon hoisted the mighty Equalizer spinnaker but the wind was extremely light and what there was of it was very shifty. Full Moon got past non-rival-Zephyr and then ended up on starboard jibe coming alongside rival-Zephyr on port jibe, both boats going the same direction. Slightly different wind 15 yards apart! Unfortunately, Full Moon eventually had to jibe, which allowed rival-Zephyr to pull back ahead. Incredibly, Zephyr then chose to skip the Freeway buoy rather than deal with going behind a small group of boats working their way around. Full Moon must look terrifying when gaining from behind! 

Heading west in light air - but we're gaining!

Full Moon, of course, rounded properly and then took a southerly route toward the Aurora buoy, seeing more wind that way. This paid off very well as Full Moon picked off several boats, including some J24s and speedy Dreams (Olson 25), before rounding the buoy in a tight cluster of boats. Zephyr was forced to the outside (at least they didn’t cheat this one!) but a J24 trying to sneak around inside had to have a crewman on the bow push off Full Moon’s stern to avoid a rear-ender. (Thanks for the push!)

Concentration apparently pays off...

On the final leg, Full Moon gathered a little speed in the light air but the relative giant Norlin 34 Runaway began to gain from behind. Full Moon squeezed a bit higher to weather, though, and established the classic lee-bow position, slowing Runaway and initiating some good-natured banter between boats. Full Moon then slowly pulled out ahead until there was room to tack. Unfortunately, once separated, Runaway was able to generate a bit more speed to pull back in front on the next tack and hold the lead to the finish – with more close-quarters banter, of course! In the end, Full Moon was an excellent seventh, ahead of all the J24s and T-birds and still happily ahead of the double-cheaters on Zephyr.

Post-race relaxation with a cup of bubbly.