Recovery for the Bronze

Full Moon heads toward the Aurora buoy. Most of the boats ahead will soon be behind!

Full Moon crew Randy “Popcorn” Olsen, Daniel “Soundtrack” Mengedoht, Robert “Solo Cup” Leykam, and skipper John “Relaxed” Mengedoht were late to the starting line for the Olympics Duck Dodge, crossing the line near the back of the fleet. The Race Committee unusually chose a downwind start, the wind having shifted from the southwest to nearly due south. With a relatively short first leg and anticipating a reach instead of a run, Full Moon opted not to use a spinnaker and, amazingly, managed to use clear air to claw past nearly half the boats ahead before rounding the Freeway buoy.

Full Moon about to round the AGC buoy. The T-bird will be passed on the final leg.

Full Moon had good speed on the close reach past Gasworks, but the wind dropped to nearly nothing heading to the Aurora buoy and a group of boats converged. Then, with a (relatively) wide gap between other boats and the buoy and nobody hardening up their course, Full Moon easily slipped inside and around for another large gain.

Daniel tests the Bronze Medal for third place.

The long upwind leg south featured different wind directions on different parts of the course and Full Moon was able to enjoy a long stretch pointing nearly straight down the lake, gaining significantly on boats farther east. This good fortune wouldn’t last, though, as conditions became very shifty and lighter approaching the AGC buoy and multiple tacks were needed to get around.

The skipper adds to the 2024 Duck Collection.

The Equalizer was put to good use for the final leg, the course being directly downwind. Much to our amazement, a horn sounded as Full Moon crossed the finish line – Full Moon had taken third place for the Bronze Duck!

Tropical Silver

Full Moon (top center) heads up the Eastlake shore just after the start. TaTonka (yellow boat) and SYC 2 are briefly in the lead.

Full Moon crew Randy “Halyards” Olsen, Daniel “Hold My Beer” Mengedoht, Chad “Gift To Neptune” Harnish, Logan “Late Substitution” Pulsifer, and skipper John “Slow Start” Mengedoht returned to third start for the Tropical Night Duck Dodge. With the pin end favored, Full Moon again went with a starboard tack start, just behind eventual winner Raptor (T-bird) before tacking a bit early to head up the Eastlake shore.

Raptor leads Full Moon around the AGC buoy.

Starting on port tack with at full speed initially favored TaTonka (SJ24) and SYC 2 (J22) but they both lost ground on the upwind leg as Raptor pulled into the lead with Full Moon second. A slow moving second-start boat created a tacking challenge for Full Moon at the Freeway buoy, giving Raptor a greater lead and allowing TaTonka to nearly catch up.

Daniel and Chad scoring beers from the floating "island."

The order remained for the second leg, though Full Moon gained a bit. The Equalizer provided its usual magic on the long reach south to the AGC buoy, Full Moon gaining a lot on Raptor while leaving TaTonka far behind.

It was yet another sunny but breezy evening!

The next short leg was free of other traffic and Full Moon was able to score quite a few (partial) cups of beer buzzing by the floating tropical “island.” The final leg was a straight shot upwind where Full Moon received the horn for second place and another Silver Duck for the mast.

Adding the Silver Duck to the collection on the mast.

Beating Leo Kai

Full Moon crew Randy “Movies” Olsen, Anne “Muscles” Gustavson, Daniel “Hazardous Conditions” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Trim!” Mengedoht went in second start for the Christmas in July Duck Dodge to complete our atonement for three top-three finishes in third start. With a starting line favoring a starboard tack approach, Full Moon was well-positioned but a little too early and had to run the line, losing distance to boats that nailed the buoy-end start. Worse, Mr. Nibbles (Ultimate 20) was close to windward, preventing an earlier tack that would have helped (both of us!). Still, there were quite a few boats behind, including the giant (40’+) Beneteau Leo Kai.

A gaggle of little Hobies joins the Duck Dodge.

The first leg was a tight reach and Full Moon rounded the Freeway buoy in close company with a few other boats. On the second leg past Gasworks, Full Moon made some strategic gains on small boats but not on the large ones, which had an advantage in the relatively strong breeze.

Full Moon is on the left on approach to the AGC buoy.

Leo Kai had caught up by the Aurora buoy and provided a massive wind shadow until Full Moon could escape eastward with the Equalizer. Full Moon passed a few boats on the southbound leg, including Leo Kai, which favored the Westlake shore. A conservative spinnaker drop allowed a J-22 to barely sneak inside at the AGC buoy, Full Moon working to avoid them as well as some drifting power boats hanging out by the buoy.

The J22 sneaks inside with spinnaker still flying. Leo Kai takes up the rear.

On the upwind fourth leg, Leo Kai came romping by and speedy Runaway (Norlin 34) finally caught Full Moon at the Freeway buoy (there are two laps in second start). The rest of the second lap was similar to the first except that Full Moon managed to vanquish Leo Kai at the finish line, coming across about seventh. It was a beautiful evening on the lake and nice to escape the heat with the solid breeze.

Covidians

Being shorthanded already and with ace foredeck crew Daniel "Positive" Mengedoht out with COVID, Full Moon elected to sit out the Anything But Clothing Duck Dodge. Assuming the skipper stays healthy, we'll be back next week!

Big Shrimp!

Full Moon crew Randy “Dry Spot” Olsen, Daniel “Bonk” Mengedoht, and skipper John “The Shrimper” Mengedoht were “promoted” to second start for the Red, White and Blue Duck Dodge. Crossing the line nearly on time but not up to full speed, Full Moon was about seventh up the first leg to the Freeway buoy, which was set a bit farther north than usual. After rounding, Full Moon mixed it up on the second leg with Bad X-Ample (X-Yachts 342) while making gains on the relative giant Beneteau Leo Kai.

Full Moon was fourth across the start line, not counting Rajun Cajun and the Kettenburg, which were both over early.

With the pole set low and nearly on the forestay, the Equalizer paid dividends on the long beam reach south with Full Moon eventually passing Leo Kai and gaining a lot on the lead boats. Unfortunately, bringing down the Equalizer proved challenging with a small crew and a lot of it ended up in the water and slowing Full Moon, though it was retrieved before a nice rounding at the AGC buoy.

Full Moon (blue, black and white spinnaker) works past Leo Kai while gaining on the leaders.

By this point, Full Moon was fifth behind Touch of Grey, Rawhide (J22), Honey Bee (Ranger 26), and Rajun Cajun (J24) and that proved to be the finishing order. Other than Touch of Grey, second start seems like reasonable competition for Full Moon. I guess we’ll find out more next week!