Silver to Start

Nice way to start the season!

Full Moon crew Randy “Rusty” Olsen, Daniel “Long Drink” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Lucky” Mengedoht enjoyed an excellent start for the first Duck Dodge of 2024, leading the fleet until the speedy Ultimate 20 Mr. Nibbles slid past. (Mr. Nibbles continued on to an easy win.) A white T-bird (Makima?) also got past on the way to the Freeway buoy, dropping Full Moon to third.

Full Moon and Tailwind after finishing.

The second leg was largely strategic, trying to go where the light breeze was stronger while playing the shifts upwind. Full Moon passed the tail end of the second start fleet and managed to catch up to the T-bird but couldn’t quite cross on port tack and had to duck behind before rounding the Aurora buoy.

Full Moon enjoying the sunset after the race.

Once around, the Equalizer was deployed, at first wanting to collapse in the light air. Then the wind began to fill in and shift forward and Full Moon soon left the bulk of the fleet behind, including the T-bird. We also were slowly gaining on more second start boats, including the Choate 27 Gift Horse.

It wasn't that warm but it was a beautiful evening!

With just three aboard, the spinnaker drop was started a bit early, but it went well, the pole properly stowed just before rounding the AGC buoy. Then it was a straight shot close reach to the finish line with Full Moon taking second place for the silver duck. The Capri 25 Tailwind wasn’t too far behind to take third.