Red, White and Green

Full Moon crew Randy “4 AM” Olsen, Debra “Trader Joes” Ricard, Erin “Sparkly” Osberg, Troy “Soggy Chute” Charlesworth, Daniel “Theme Music” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Carburetor” Mengedoht set up for what looked like a very promising start near the “pin” end for the Christmas in July Duck Dodge, the buoy being set comparatively far down the course. Unfortunately, a southerly wind shift and stronger breeze toward the west enabled boats starting near the Committee Boat to come out better and Full Moon rounded the AGC buoy about eighth.

Nice weather!

The short leg to Chandler’s was a nice beam reach with the jib, followed by a long broad to beam reach under the Equalizer up the lake to the Freeway buoy. Full Moon then stayed on port tack for a while before tacking south to start the second lap. Inexplicably, old rival Ignitor managed to out point Full Moon upwind to remain ahead (are those new sails?).

Hangin' with Selchie on a beam reach.

Approaching the AGC buoy, there was a fair bit of traffic, including one very slow boat plodding along fairly close to the buoy. After some classic Duck Dodge close-quarters maneuvering, Full Moon emerged for a short run to the Chandler’s buoy before launching the Equalizer again to head north. This worked well for a while until the wind began clocking around to the NW, rendering the spinnaker useless. What was now an upwind takedown proved challenging and the Equalizer took a bath before being hauled back aboard.

Flying with the Equalizer before the wind shift.

The rest of the leg and the final close reach to the finish proved uneventful, Full Moon finishing about 12^th close behind speedy Selchie and, yes, Ignitor. (Those must be new sails!)