August Drifter #2

Full Moon (far right) chasing the leaders.

The Wrestling Night Duck Dodge featured extremely light wind with apparently random shifts. Full Moon crew Randy “Stay in the Middle” Olsen, Rob “Jib Sheets” Lane, Logan “Fancy Knots” Pulsifer, Daniel “Low Pole” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Giant Jib” Mengedoht set up for a starboard tack start near the pin end of the line but were a bit late on timing (skipper error), crossing ahead of a few port tack boats but behind six other boats. The good news, if any, is that the first tack resulted in a course directly to the Freeway buoy once all the wind shifts were through.

Parking lot at the AGC buoy.

With no Aurora buoy (shortened course), the Equalizer was hoisted for the long leg south, but the wind had shifted from a northerly to a west to southwest direction, resulting in flying the symmetrical chute more like a badly cut genoa. The wind held for much of the leg but faded out near the AGC buoy. This allowed Full Moon to catch up with boats ahead until running into the same dead air, while also allowing boats from behind to catch up.

Full Moon (top right) heading for the finish. Some boats are still heading to the AGC buoy.

Rounding the AGC buoy was slow and painful, and the wind remained extremely light and confused. Some boats were able to eventually do well with spinnakers, but it wasn’t worth the effort to repack the Equalizer. In the end, Full Moon finished about sixth in second start, not bad at all given the conditions.

The Lady Washington was out and ended up at Full Moon's marina! Let's hope they're around for Pirate Night.