Duck What?

Full Moon crew Dave “Low Rider” Pulsifer, Judy “Slippery” Tiffany, Kelly “Baba Ganoush” Laleman, Troy “Ready” Charlesworth, Daniel “Skirt” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Prudent” Mengedoht were fresh out of camouflage and fake beards for the Duck Dodgesty Duck Dodge but well stocked with cold beer to enjoy yet another amazing sunny June evening. With a lot of boats out and relatively strong wind, Full Moon attempted a starboard tack start but the line was angled so as to make that very difficult. A well-timed tack to port took care of business, though, and Full Moon was off and zipping along not far back from the leaders. (Third start apparently had a three-boat crash. The Race Committee could do a lot to reduce port-starboard collision potential by setting the start line either square to the wind or favoring starboard tack. Oh, wait, this is the Duck Dodge. Never mind…)

The starting line buoy was a bit different for this race!

A short time and a couple of tacks later, Full Moon was around the Aurora buoy and heading south. However, with a fairly strong breeze and a beginner slated to deal with the foredeck, the skipper elected to keep the oversized nylon monster safely contained in the turtle bag. Gybing out toward the middle of the lake worked out reasonably well, though, and, while the San Juan 28 Zephyr got past under spinnaker, they took a wide slow turn at the AGC buoy, allowing Full Moon room to slip inside and back in front.

Full Moon at the starting line with Tenacious just beyond.

The wind continued to be gusty and shifty for the long leg north to the Freeway buoy. Full Moon was still hanging in there with a couple of J24s and even the J30 Slingshot, though Gift Horse (30’?) eventually managed to get past to windward. The short leg to the Aurora buoy then proved to be a straight shot, though just barely as Full Moon squeaked around with only a foot or two to spare.

Zephyr gets past under spinnaker but Full Moon would return the favor upwind.

Once again, the Equalizer remained tucked away for the southbound leg and once again Zephyr got past under spinnaker, as did our old rival Ignitor. Once around the AGC buoy, though, Ignitor fell behind and the chase was on to catch Zephyr. Full Moon maintained a good line directly to the Freeway buoy while Zephyr faded to the east and had to tack. This put Full Moon back in front for good, though the Catalina 30 Necessary Evil rounded just behind and quickly put their spinnaker to work, passing Full Moon about halfway to the finish line and returning the favor from last week.