Disco Duck

Full Moon (center left) chases Zephyr to the Freeway buoy.

Full Moon regulars Art “Motorcycle” Teller, Tammy “Seychelles” Cross, Daniel “Cinematographer” Mengedoht and skipper John “Second?” Mengedoht were joined by guests UW Professors Ashley “81” Emory and Norm “79” McCormick for the Disco Night Duck Dodge. A conservative start provided a straight shot to the Freeway buoy with a lot of converging boats at the buoy. Full Moon had to tack sooner than desired after the rounding to avoid a J22 tacking directly in front, resulting in a “lower” line past Gasworks toward the Aurora buoy.

Several boats struggled to make the Aurora buoy without tacking, resulting in a bit of a pileup. Full Moon tacked to above the layline, sacrificing some time and distance to ensure clearing the mess. The Equalizer then went up smoothly for a fast romp on a beam reach. The Catalina 30 Necessary Evil threatened to pass several times to leeward but could not punch through, falling back on each attempt. Approaching the AGC buoy, however, they crossed behind and to windward while Full Moon was dealing with a slightly early spinnaker drop and were able to just poke ahead for the rounding.

The 40 foot cat Dragonfly caught by the setting sun.

Heading upwind, Full Moon sailed high to ensure not needing to tack for the Freeway buoy. Crossing the “finish” line to complete the first lap, the Committee Boat sounded a horn – they had apparently assumed Full Moon was in third start! Thinking they would figure things out eventually, Full Moon kept going, passing old rival Zephyr and this time sailing a bit farther past the Freeway buoy before tacking.

Unfortunately, it still wasn’t possible to lay the Aurora buoy without tacking but at least Full Moon was able to leverage starboard tack as Necessary Evil was forced to duck behind. The Equalizer again was launched smoothly and Full Moon took off, leaving Necessary Evil (and Zephyr) behind for good. It was yet another amazingly beautiful evening for a sail, ending all too soon.

The post-race raft-up enjoys the warm evening and fading wind.