Rusty Swords

After time off for college graduation (the “Cabin Boy” graduated summa cum laude from Cal State Northridge!) and some overdue boat projects, Full Moon finally returned to racing action for the Pirate Night Duck Dodge. With everyone aboard rusty at racing, the hope was to go in third start and the Race Committee appeared to assume that was appropriate. We may ask for second start in the future if only because there are fewer boats, though it is more work for the crew to do two laps. (The Cabin Boy used to repack the spinnaker and set it up for the second lap, but he can’t commute from LA…)

With decent wind out of the northwest and a relatively short starting line close to the Eastlake shore, port tack was necessary to cross the line. Rather than battle it out with the large cluster of boats going for the favored Committee Boat end (west end), Full Moon crew Randy, Dave, Judy, and skipper John approached the line on starboard before tacking near the “pin” end. The result was a pretty good start in relatively clear air with no yelling, screaming or… collisions. (It didn’t sound happy at the other end!)

Only two tacks were needed to reach the Freeway buoy, a minor miracle given all the drifting power boats and paddle boards. Full Moon then stayed on starboard tack nearly to the Westlake shore before tacking north to the Aurora buoy. This worked pretty well, though we were dismayed to see our old rival Ignitor (with new owner/skipper) ahead of us. Unfortunately, it took a while to get the spinnaker up for the long downwind leg (a well-oiled crew, we are not!) but, once it was up, Full Moon passed a couple of boats while holding off a Hobie 33.

Getting the spinnaker down to round the AGC buoy took a little longer than anticipated, though we managed to make the turn about 40’ past the buoy. Making this hilarious, though, was the Hobie 33 skipper yelling for Full Moon to give him “mark room!” Why hilarious? First, there was easily room for about three or four boats to round inside of Full Moon so “mark room” should not have been an issue at all. Second, the Racing Rules such as “mark room” do not apply in the Duck Dodge, just the basic “rules of the road,” though avoiding collision is always the highest priority. Third, even under the Racing Rules, you have to have an overlap to claim “mark room” and the Hobie never established an overlap before reaching the buoy.

The final leg north to the finish turned out to be a straight shot for Full Moon on port tack. Ignitor was still ahead but much farther east and would clearly need two tacks to cross the line. The J24 Cobalt was a little ahead but also farther east. In the end, Ignitor stayed ahead by just enough, but Cobalt’s tacks allowed Full Moon to cross the line ahead. However, the story doesn’t end there – it turns out that both Ignitor and Cobalt were in second start with an entire lap still to go! Full Moon had started a full five minutes behind both boats and did very well to catch them in a single lap.

It was a gorgeous sunny and warm evening on the lake, and it was fantastic to finally be racing again. We were too busy to take photos, sorry!