Light Wind in the Wild West

Full Moon's vote for the Black Duck was this Catalina Canoe.

The Western Night Duck Dodge featured mild to sometimes nonexistent wind out of the southwest along with clearing skies and fairly warm temperatures. Full Moon crew Marcelle “Holy Shoes” Lynde, Dave “New Shoes” Pulsifer, Judy “No Shoes” Tiffany, Michelle “Sporty Shoes” Mathison, Daniel “Blue Shoes” Mengedoht and skipper John “Old Shoes” Mengedoht maneuvered for a fairly decent start near the Committee Boat but still got stuck in bad air from several boats and no good opportunities to tack for clear air. Eventually, things cleared out enough to tack to the west but this still involved ducking several boats on starboard tack. Fortunately, the next tack saw those same boats needing to duck behind Full Moon!

Full Moon flies the Equalizer on the second leg.

With lots of oncoming traffic at the AGC buoy, Full Moon delayed hoisting the mighty Equalizer spinnaker for a short while but then made good use of the nylon monster with a speedy beam reach straight to the Freeway buoy. This included passing a few boats to finally get into the front half of the fleet and leaving boats such as rival Zephyr well behind.

A line of third start boats heading for the finish. It was gorgeous out there!

After a clean drop of the spinnaker, it was another straight shot upwind to the Aurora buoy. The next leg was a fairly close reach back to the Committee Boat. The J24 Beagle was gaining from behind but chose to try and pass to windward between Full Moon and another boat. Full Moon called “leeward!” and attempted to head Beagle up before it was too late but Beagle forged ahead between boats and didn’t even attempt to get the other boat to change course. (Memo to Beagle: In a serious race, that would have cost you a protest or penalty turn – don’t try to pass to windward unless you have room to head up!) Oh, well, it is the Duck Dodge…

Full Moon enjoys the sunset after the race.

After rounding the AGC buoy, the Equalizer was hoisted again and Full Moon pulled back ahead of Beagle while also gaining on speedy Dreams (Olson 25). Unfortunately, the wind was getting lighter heading toward the Freeway buoy. Full Moon caught up to Dreams with some separation on their leeward side but Beagle was able to ride the following wind longer to get around the leeward side of Full Moon. Full Moon rounded the mark just outside of Dreams while Beagle stayed further out. This benefited Beagle for a while as Full Moon suffered in the wind shadow off Dreams and had to fall off a bit toward Gasworks. Up ahead, though, it was clear that the wind was getting ever lighter, especially closest to the north shore of the lake where Beagle was heading.

A good turnout for the post-race raft-up!

Dreams and Full Moon were just south of the dying breeze and, while Dreams looked like they could make the Aurora buoy, Full Moon was going to have to take a hitch to the south. Full Moon waited patiently for a little more breeze before tacking and then tacking back with a perfect line to the buoy. Unfortunately, a trimaran had come to nearly a dead stop right at the buoy! Dreams stayed wide but Full Moon was able to just tack into the slowly enlarging hole between the trimaran and the buoy. The choice to keep south and good timing for the tacks allowed Full Moon to pass five boats on this one leg, including Beagle and the T-birds Valkyrie and Selchie! Full Moon wasn’t quite done, though, and managed to pass one more J24 and hold off Dreams to cross the line in eighth place, a great result for a challenging race.