Ouch!

Art enjoys his perch in the sun on the first leg. Doug Schoemaker photo.

Full Moon crew Libby “Montana” Hinsley, Randy “Sun Chips” Olsen, Art “The Knife” Teller, Doug “Boom” Schoemaker, and skipper John “Shaken, Not Stirred” Mengedoht came out for yet another stunning warm, sunny evening with a good breeze out of the north. Full Moon went for a conservative start on starboard tack, if a bit early, and ended up too far down the line before tacking at the start. Boats starting closer to the Committee Boat did much better and Full Moon wallowed in bad air for much of the first leg.

New sailor Libby gets the hang of trimming the jib. Doug Schoemaker photo.

After a mildly congested rounding of the Freeway buoy, Full Moon finally found a bit of clear air and made up a little ground crossing the lake to the Aurora buoy. Unfortunately, a large ship emerged from under the Fremont Bridge and Full Moon steered south to stay out of its way. As the ship moved slowly forward, a zone about 30 yards wide was left between the ship and the buoy and Full Moon was able to tack into this gap. All was looking good until encountering the Buchan 37 Distance pointing nearly head-to-wind but using momentum to round the buoy. This caused some tense moments but Full Moon stayed clear and made it around before launching the spinnaker for a fast run down the lake, passing a number of boats.

Ship ahoy! Stay clear! Doug Schoemaker photo.

Distance had fallen quite a bit behind but began to catch up approaching the AGC buoy. They eventually developed an overlap to leeward when Full Moon was about 50 feet from the buoy (from my perspective) but did not hail for room at the buoy or hail for Full Moon to come up to windward or even maneuver further to windward themselves. As a result, Distance’s course did not carry them around the buoy and they jibed just past it. Full Moon, meanwhile, had dropped the spinnaker, rounded the buoy, and also jibed, leaving both boats running parallel on port tack with Full Moon several feet to leeward.

Randy enjoys the ride downwind. Doug Schoemaker photo.

Distance approaches from behind. Doug Schoemaker photo.

What happened next is in dispute. Distance’s skipper apparently believes that I intentionally maneuvered to hit Distance. From my point of view, Distance made an unexpected turn to port (into the wind) and, as the boat pivoted, her stern moved toward Full Moon, the aluminum toe rail on her stern quarter putting a deep gouge in Full Moon’s port side. As Distance began to turn (again, from my point of view), I yelled “Watch your stern!” and my faithful crewman of 19 years, Randy Olsen, moved to fend off. Fortunately, Randy stopped before putting a foot or hand between the boats. Boats can be repaired more easily than humans.

As you may imagine, some yelling then ensued between boats. My boat was damaged and I was not happy about it. (Distance’s toe rail, on the other hand, looked fine.) My crew had seen what had happened and were also upset. We also did not understand how Distance’s crew could think that we were in any way at fault.

[In hindsight, I believe that Distance’s skipper may have been distracted by getting things sorted after their spinnaker takedown and was simply unaware that his boat was turning. Meanwhile, if I were out to cause a collision, turning into Distance would have caused my bow or port side to hit Distance’s starboard side and not her stern quarter. Alternatively, if I had turned away, my stern was behind Distance’s stern and my pivot point is much shorter (due to the boat being 12 feet shorter) and if anything would have hit Distance, I think it would have been my outboard (which would also have required a very radical turn). Beyond that, there would have to be the question of why I would want to initiate a collision. Distance’s skipper has alleged that I am a super-aggressive win-at-all-costs kind of guy. That is not, of course, how I see myself or how my crew views me, either, but let’s just say that was true. What would I stand to gain by purposely hitting another boat?]

Regardless, Full Moon sailed on toward the Freeway buoy, once again putting a considerable lead on Distance. Unfortunately, the wind began to fade approaching the buoy and Distance caught up, her skipper and crew initiating another exchange of words. Shaken by both the collision and the ongoing verbal exchange, I lost track of the buoy and ended up in irons, barely making it by without touching it. Distance sailed on by, her crew laughing at our predicament.

We continued around the rest of the course without incident and finished the race. Other than not being dead last, I have no idea what place we were in. I remain shaken by the collision three days later and have had to consider whether racing in the Duck Dodge is really worth it. I don’t like having damage to the boat I’ve loved and held onto for 28 years and it sure doesn’t feel good having a bunch of people screaming at me and my crew when we haven’t done anything wrong. I know people who have quit because the risk was too much for them or because their boat was damaged in a collision. This season has been the worst I can ever remember for collisions in the Duck Dodge and it is only half over. At the same time, I love sailing and love being out there on the lake with some truly fun and outstanding people.

Moving forward, I wish Mr. Dolan and the crew of Distance all the best. I can hope that, once everyone has calmed down, there might be some room to consider my point of view on the collision but, even if not, we are all sailors enjoying the sport we love and doing our best to have fun out there.

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