2004 Finale

Reported by Tom Londrigan Jr.

Lake Springfield’s Fall Finale is neither in the fall nor the final event of the season.  Fall starts today September 22^nd, and the Holt Thomas Memorial is the following weekend; so much for titles.  The first race was on the 18^th and 14 arrived on the line, the 15^th boat, Rope-it-in Rick Rundle, meandered out to the starting line on his own schedule; for reasons unknown the race committee accommodated Rick and his man-child Carson Menges.  This was a first in ISCYRA history. 

John Wysockey showed up with his two daughters Zara and Margeaux.  Someone pointed out that Margot was wearing the red shorts of Gene McCarthy and “do-rag” of Deion Sanders.  She smiled not knowing how to interpret the observation.

The first race was like the second, third, fourth, and fifth races; moderate wind with vast velocity differences and 20 degree shifts with no apparent pattern.  Those who guessed on the wind rolled the dice.  As Kenny Cole always said, “those who live by the sword, die by the sword.”  Mark Lewis/Trevor Wallner were living large by the sword as they made sweet love to the left side of the course.   Mark usually makes sweet love to the right side of the course so Mark was doing a little “wind-swappin’” this weekend; Mark is a swinger.

The first leeward mark brought a 12-boat pile-up with no gate.  Rules were cited and ignored, there was gnashing of teeth but no red flag.  We were deep but Lewis held on.  Downwind the wind dwindled along with his lead but still Lewis/Wallner won, with Myself/Wallner in second, and Todd Gay/Pat Brewer in third.  The second race brought another disastrous first leg for Chris and I, but we snaked through eight boats or so to win with Jeff Schafer/Matt Petersen in second, and Rick Brethorst/Bob Carson in third. 

The third race was the strangest of all, throughout the day the wind went left but mysteriously boats could pass by going to middle or even to the right.  However, most of these boats were hammered for reasons I’ll try to explain later.  The leaders Schafer, Pat Londrigan/Mike Thomas, and George and Lynda/Preckwinkle did a good job of navigating the shifts and velocity changes and finished in that order.  For the rest of us, it was not so easy.  I rarely blow my top but the foul language rolled out of my mouth like a bad bunch of strawberries when I watched Rick Brethorst, only two boat lengths to leeward sailing 10 degrees higher and faster, and Bill Parks/Jim Wise behind and to weather doing the same.  However, this scenario helps illustrate the conditions.   

Sunday brought more of the same with a little more wind.  We were leading the regatta with eight points, Gay/Brewer were second with 11 points, and Lewis, Pat Londrigan, and Schafer had 13 points.  At the first mark, Schafer went right and rounded in first, with Lewis, Preckwinkle and Parks next.  We were second to last with the Wysockey girls bearing down, Gay was in fourth and Pat Londrigan was in the middle of the pack.   We caught up to finish third behind Schafer and then the Preckwinkles.  Gay, Lewis, and Pat Londrigan gave up too many points so Jeff Schafer/Matt Petersen needed to put two boats between us to win.  It looked promising for them, despite their first race, they had two firsts and a second.

Sure enough they enjoyed a nice lead at the first mark and we were 10^th.   There was a nice silence on our boat, a sense of peace.  No more worries, we had already choked the chicken.  Slowly, we worked up to forth by the next windward mark and then passed the other three downwind to win.  I won the regatta once before in 1986, when I was nineteen.  It was nice to win something this year after struggling with a new boat; see the used boat articles on stargear.net.  Jeff Schafer and Matt Petersen were a solid second, George and Lynda Preckwinkle were third amidst “woo-hoos” and kissing on the boat, Todd Gay and Pat Brewer were fourth with similar activities on the boat, and the swinger Mark Lewis and Trevor Wallner were fifth.

Hindsight or pontification, your choice:  We usually have good starts and first legs and may lose boats the rest of the race.  This weekend was the opposite.  We were never in the first half and passed many boats later.  Why?  As I mentioned, the conditions varied greatly, particularly the velocity.  While much of the races involved hiking, there were significant times when the crew had to go from the hike to inside the boat.  Obviously, 20 and 30-degree shifts will turn a race on its ear but the velocity differences were the most important factor.  You could be the leeward boat upwind as the wind “wound up” 20 to 30 degrees and still fare well but you couldn’t miss the outside edge of the puff or you were done.  It didn’t matter, whether you were sailing downwind or upwind, you were done. 

It is a compulsion, and a good one generally, to take a hitch and clear your air.  However, on a small lake with a small course, sometimes you spend the whole leg taking a small hitch here and there and either end up on one side of the course or just missing the edge of a puff.  Heading off to one side of the course or the other was not the remedy.   Sure it worked in some cases but generally, these boats were not in contention to win the regatta.  Joe Londrigan often preaches, “hanging tough.”  This means to sail in bad wind and try your best to hold your lane because it is either the right way to go or because you are sailing into velocity.   Chris and I spent most of the regatta sailing in someone’s dirt box.  Sure we didn’t pass the boats dumping on us but if two other boats tacked to clear their air, we passed them etc....  At one point, my brother, Pat Londrigan, was a few boats-lengths to leeward on the right side of the course.  We tacked on a velocity increase and rode a slight header back to the fleet and rounded the next mark in third.  He waited to clear his air, missed the puff, and rounded in last.  If Pat would have tacked and sat in our dirt box then he would have been ok.  Again, we learned a valuable lesson from Joe, one that he has repeated a hundred times but now only appreciate when it paid off.  Thanks, Joe.