2008 4th District Championship

Fifteen Stars congregated in central Illinois , on Lake Springfield , to compete for the 2008 4th District Championship. Those attendees were rewarded with some of the best sailing conditions we have seen in years; strong winds running the length of the lake from the south.

After rigging and registration at the club on Thursday, everyone headed over to Tom and Betsy Londrigan's new house overlooking the water for cocktails and dinner. Apparently someone forgot to tell Stargear.net goofs Tommy and Rick Brethorst that they were AT A PARTY, because they plowed ahead with their sail repair project in the middle of the living room , oblivious of the festivities around them.

Little did the party goers know, that they would be sniffing the Stargear.net teams' tail pipes all weekend long, and that they weren't just a couple of social pariahs " doing their thing".

Friday dawned wet and windy, and it was an easy decision to leave the boats on the trailers as gusts consistently topped thirty knots. A Laser slalom race was organized in front of the club, which was won handily by Finn Ace Geoff Ewenson. Geoff's victory secured a nice bit of walking around money for his helmsman Jon VanderMolen, who wisely paid up for Geoff in the Calcutta auction. While most people enjoyed the slalom show, Pat Londrigan hunkered down in the Stargear.net van, and had the Stargear.net tattoo artist decorate his left bicep with  " Patrick". Nothing quite says, " I'm one, self absorbed little spider monkey like having your own name tattooed on your arm. A lovely party was hosted that night by Todd and Suzi Gay. I had a great time, but I was puzzled when people came up to me time and time again and complemented me for "losing all that extra weight. " Tom Wysockey said he almost didn't recognize me in McDonald's recently, because I was so fat. Huh?

Saturday was great after a thunderstorm pushed through. A light southeasterly quickly built into planning conditions . Race leader Peter Wright had a major brain fart at the end of the first run and went around the gate the wrong way, opening the door for Tommy and Stewart Hall  to slither through for the win. Todd Gay and Darrin Jensen were second, with Rick Brethorst and Arthur Anosov in third. A promising start and first beat for my yacht ,fell apart due to errors by both skipper and crew; errors that should have been worked out in sailing school, but continued throughout the weekend.

Race 2 started in a solid 18 knots and was straightforward to the finish. Londrigan/ Hall won convincingly, with Brethorst/Anosov second and Gay/ Jensen third.

 Race3 again saw Londrigan/ Hall leading throughout, in a breeze that began to reach 20 plus knots , with Gay/Jensen second, and VanderMolen/Ewenson third.It was a great day of sailing and no one got hurt. Well not exactly. George Preckwinkle, whom I have known for years and always liked, decided to mash his crew Trevor Wallner with the boom. Trevor was knocked cold and didn't come to until he ended up in the tepid waters of Lake Springfield. George dove into the water to rescue Trevor, and Mark Lewis and Scott Smith received RDG points for fishing them out of the drink. Tommy and Rick are developing a Starger.net melon protector that will be available shortly. Stay tuned.

There was a nice barbeque at the club that night, and Betsy Londrigan graciously gave me one of her cook books. Betsy is  a great chef, but she said all her toiling in the kitchen has gone for naught, as husband Tommy just "main- lines twinkies all day." What the hell, Tommie's training/carbo loading paid off in the breeze, so cholesterol be damned.

Sunday saw even more breeze, and Londrigan/Hall led from start to finish for the win. That's what Todd Gay thought. Now Todd's a tailor by trade, and can size up a man's inseam from 50 paces, so he was sure Tommy beat Brethorst/ Anosov across the finish. But that was not the case, as Rick and Arthur spoiled Tom and Stewart's perfect score surfing just past at the finish. This one boat ended up securing second for Brethorst/ Anosov in a tiebreaker over Gay/ Jensen in the final results.

The final race saw Tommy first, Todd second, and Rick third.