Bronze Holiday

Full Moon crew Michael “Too Short” Medina, Marcelle “That’s Okay” Van Houten, Adam “Skinny Santa” Michalak, Jackie “Texas” Hensy, Daniel “Tunes” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Sorry, Marcelle” Mengedoht hit the start line right on time for the Christmas in July Duck Dodge. A few other boats were either over early or very late for second start… Regardless, Full Moon did well on the first leg until reaching the disturbed air off a much larger boat in front. This allowed a few boats, including the always well-sailed Tuesday, to get or remain ahead at the Freeway buoy.

Tuesday is always fast, despite those patches!

On the second leg, Full Moon struggled a bit to find clear air, though that didn’t prevent the passing of a few stragglers from second start! The Equalizer was launched immediately after rounding the Aurora buoy. A jibe toward the middle of the lake might have been advisable but other traffic made that a difficult option so Full Moon stuck with sailing a deep angle. The wind then varied back and forth between nearly dead downwind and a beam reach on the long leg south. Small gains were made on Tuesday but a cluster of slower boats in the way on approach to the AGC buoy made any hope of a pass impossible.

Cruising past the Committee Boat to collect another duck.

Jibing at the buoy brought another tangle of the pole and the jib sheets, the culprit apparently being a topping lift issue. The good news is that this didn’t cost any positions, the bad news was that Tuesday pulled farther ahead. After two tacks, Full Moon received the horn for third place, Tuesday scoring second and a boat called Baby Girl taking the gold. Meanwhile, it was yet another glorious sunny evening on the lake. This has been a great summer and we still have six more races to enjoy!

Is there room on the mast? The boom is full...