September 23-24
Chicago, IL
After a few weeks of crewing for some of my good friends, it was time to take back the reins and do a Lightning event on my current home waters. I was pretty excited and thanks to Dieball Boat Works, the Wimpy Flash was ready for action!
Friday evening the crowd started to form. We all met at my all time favorite hang out, Bar Louie in Wrigleyville. As the clock struck 11:PM, shots were poured to celebrate EST for the 23rd, then at Midnight CST more shots. It was my 30th birthday, and I never thought I'd have as much fun reaching that milestone as I did. Thanks to Greg Fisher for pointing out that I'm now in a different Market-Survey age category.
Twenty boats from Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Detroit, Cincinnati, etc. showed for what looked to be a rainy, dreary day. What we got was some of the best Lightning conditions we could've asked for. The wind was 12-20 out of the North-Northeast and the waves were between 3-5 feet. Hard work upwind led to exiting rides downwind.
As it turned out, Saturday would be our only day of racing as the Northeaster built throughout the weekend. Great job by Bruce and his gang at Chicago Corinthian for getting in four perfect windward/leeward races.
Bill Faude won the Flannels this year with an impressive score of 1,2,2,1. The Wimpy Flash did well coming in 2nd with a 2,1,3,5. My team of Laurie and Ellen Harwell worked very hard all day. It seemed that the odds were stacked against us throughout the day. For example, we forgot the compass (tough sailing with 3-5 degree shifts), had to make main halyard adjustments before race one, sailing at about 460 lbs.....all while sailing a boat that was built when LBJ was in office! Seriously, Laurie and Ellen worked their butts off and it showed. The things we couldn't control made the difference.....ever try getting a Lippincott to surf?
Congrats to Bill Faude, Perry Lewis and Jared Drake. They clearly won this year's event.
1) Bill, Perry, JD
2) Wimpy Flash
3) Jim Allen, Rob Zerban, Jane Allen
4) David Stix, Karl Erickson, New Guy
5) Mr. Bennett from Michign
6) Dan Moriarty, Matt Fisher, Tobi Heisler
Final Results are on the Fleet 5 Homepage (www.corinthian.org)
Next stop is the Snow Flurries. Saturday only racing in the Interlake Class. Looking forward to sailing with my pal Mark Kelley and drinking those awesome Bloody Marys.
Cheers,
SD