Ugly Sweaters!

Dan focuses on jib trim.

Full Moon crew Michael “No It’s Not” Medina, Eileen “Wooder” McHugh, Chad “Trotify” Harnish, Dan “Cindy” Schultz, and skipper John “Yes It Is” Mengedoht had a few beauties for Ugly Sweater Night but mostly kept them covered up with another layer to stay warm. After a decent but very crowded start near the Committee Boat, Full Moon tacked for clear air and played the wind shifts to the AGC buoy. Presetting the spinnaker pole to port necessitated a gybe set but the mighty Equalizer was soon full and pulling nicely. Two gybes later, it came smoothly back down at the Freeway buoy, though it might have been (just barely) possible to keep it up for the reach to the Aurora buoy.

Eileen, Chad, John, and Eileen enjoy the downwind run.

By now, the traffic had thinned out quite a bit and Full Moon was well back from the leaders, though still mixing it up with some J24s. The second lap was fairly uneventful until approaching the Freeway buoy with one last gybe to make. Unfortunately, the wind suddenly freshened with a huge header. Rather than gybe away from the buoy, the Equalizer was quickly brought down. Unfortunately, the pole ended up on top of the jib, preventing a hoist, and it took a while to clear up the mess!

Full Moon approaches the Freeway buoy on the first lap.

Rounding the Aurora buoy, there was still one J24 fairly close behind and the race was on to the finish line. Could the J Boat use its superior upwind speed to get by or would Full Moon’s position ahead provide enough “dirty” air to hold off the J? It was a near thing but a tack at the line gave Full Moon the edge to cross ahead by a boat-length.

Deception shows off their ugly sweater collection on the rail.

Despite the gray skies, it was nice to have a little wind and great fun to be out on the lake. Congratulations to Herb and Lynn on Flashpoint for taking second place!

Flashpoint leads Slingshot to the line to take second place.