Bronze in the Rain

Full Moon through the spyglass.

Full Moon crew Randy “No Spinnaker” Olsen, Adam “Cheap Cider” Michalak, Jackie “Luck Charm” Hensey, and skipper John “New Folds” Mengedoht nailed the third start for the Ugly Sweaters Night Duck Dodge, enjoying first place all the way to the Chandler’s Cove buoy. Unfortunately, the Ranger 33 Chula just managed to get an inside overlap to round the buoy inside and take the lead.

Post-race treats.

Heading back north on a close reach, Full Moon encountered a patch of light wind, allowing Chula to consolidate their lead, Tuesday (Columbia 26) to slip by, and a J22 to catch up. Even old rival Shogun threatened briefly until the wind kicked back in, Full Moon threading past some slower second start boats to maintain third place rounding the Aurora buoy.

Jackie and Adam

With a relatively short leg to the Freeway buoy and variable wind angles, Full Moon elected not to hoist the spinnaker. Tuesday deployed theirs for only a slight gain to hold onto second place. After rounding the buoy, Full Moon slowly gained on Tuesday upwind to the finish but could not make up the distance, still very happy to secure third place.

Getting ready to apply the new duck!

Meanwhile, having presumably spotted an opportunity to score an easy “duck,” 40-foot Thundorca (a third start regular despite her size), switched to first start so at least there were three boats in that start. Full Moon had briefly considered making the same move but opted to stuck to third start to avoid a second lap in the drizzle. As long as the Race Committee does nothing to regulate it, boats are able to freely choose which start they want and first start will remain sparsely populated. This seems nuts to me but it is what it is!