Prom Kings

And we're off!

The breeze was up for the Prom Night Duck Dodge and, while the sun was out, the temperature was on the cool side. Full Moon crew Randy “Seltzer” Olsen, Adam “IPA” Michalak, Troy “Beer Warmup” Charlesworth, Daniel “The Graduate” Mengedoht and skipper John “Za Viggle” Mengedoht were hampered in getting a good start by several larger boats delaying the desired tack onto port. Once pointed the right direction, though, it was a straight shot to the Freeway buoy with good speed.

The Freeway buoy.

Hardening up and heading nearly to Gasworks before tacking resulted in nailing the layline to the Aurora buoy where the Equalizer was soon launched to good effect, helping Full Moon to pass a few boats. Unfortunately a large RIB with a video crew came zooming across our bow, generating a huge wake in the process. Apparently some people think they are immune to the 7 knot limit on the Ship Canal and Lake Union!

Comin' through to leeward...

Dropping the spinnaker was held a bit late and jibing around the AGC buoy caused the jib sheets to get snagged on the pole but this was soon cleared up for the long upwind leg. Traffic at the Freeway buoy was thick enough for Full Moon to tack earlier rather than later, setting up the need to tack twice approaching the Aurora buoy, the last tack coming just inside Necessary Evil. The maneuvers delayed hoisting of the Equalizer but, once up, it again proved helpful, allowing Full Moon to get past a few boats which had gotten by upwind.

Closing in on bigger boats with the Equalizer.

The final leg saw the wind reduced a bit and the finish line was a bit cluttered with third start boats but Full Moon nearly held position, losing out only to the Santana 30/30 Blackout (which should have been much farther ahead!). It was difficult to tell our exact placement but Full Moon was in the top ten, having done fairly well on an evening favoring the larger boats.