Blow Me Down!

The wind was strong out of the south for the Hip Hop Duck Dodge but the truly dark and threatening skies (and all the rain) were all to the north of Lake Union before the start of the race. Full Moon crew Randy “Good Call” Olsen, Dave “Cabin Boy” Pulsifer, Erin “Downwind” Osberg, Adam “Foam Face” Michalak, and skipper John “Sometimes Size Matters” Mengedoht set up for a starboard tack start near the Committee Boat with a lot of company vying for the favored end of the line. This made for slow going until several boats tacked away in search of clear air.

 

Scary clouds prior to the race.

Full Moon was a bit overpowered in the gusts but not bad in between, making good speed to the AGC buoy. With the monster Equalizer spinnaker set to hoist, chaos was likely in the cards until the decision was made to stick with the genoa for the long downwind run to the Freeway buoy. With speeds frequently above five knots and other boats struggling to control their spinnakers, this proved to be a wise choice.

 

Full Moon didn't want to struggle taking down the Equalizer.

It was about this time that a game of cat and mouse developed with the J24 J Estalt, the speedy J boat slipping ahead only to struggle with one thing or another and slipping behind again. So it was that J Estalt forged ahead on the fast close reach to the Aurora buoy but fell behind on the long upwind leg to start the second lap. Rather than risk sending anybody forward to swap the spinnaker and pole, Full Moon again stayed with the genoa downwind after rounding the AGC buoy. J Estalt must have had spinnaker issues or some other trouble because they never regained the lead.

On the final upwind leg to the finish, Full Moon still made a race of it by just holding off a giant Beneteau 423, finishing somewhere in the middle of the fleet. While Full Moon isn’t ideal for heavy air, it was a lot of fun out there!