Twenty-five racers from across the midwest converged on Madison on July 18-19th for the District 20 Grand Prix Championship of Laser Full Rig and Radial Rig Racing. Distinguished masters racers like Bruce "Dental Floss Tycoon" Martinson, Lars "the bars" Hansen, Hyde "Lost Legend" Perce all gave the fleet the depth and bravado rarely seen at D20 regattas anymore. The best young guns in the midwest like Rodion "Sorry, I'm having dinner" Mazin from Chicago, Gordy "my dad is old" Lamphere and UW Sailing Team guru Kevin Campbell. Lets not forget the lengendary local Madison Laser sailors Stefan Schmidt and Brian Burant, along with up and coming Dave Sebald and Bill Bauer.

After a long summer of light winds in Madison, the wind gods cooperated with historic cool cloudy but windy conditions for the racers on Saturday. Six Races were sailed with full hiking in all six races. But before racing all competitors were given stylish orange and blue visors with Laser D20 Grand Prix.

Race 1 was a windy long affair (Windward Leeward twice around) lasting nearly 45 minutes in a good strong breeze of 15 knots out of the Northwest. Hyde Perce from Chicago showed he has not forgotten how to sail since is early 90's Olympic Campaign winning this race by a fair margin. Gordon Lamphere was second with the fresh legged Lars Hansen in third.

Race 2 was Triangle once around. A little shorter with a high fast first reach and deep second reach, Hyde Perce again had a significant lead near the finish but sailed past the finish and had to sail back downwind to get second place when Gordon Lamphere observantly saw the blue finish flag flying. Maybe all the synapsis were not firing. Kevin Campell took third, with Bruce Martionson taking another fourth to follow th fourth place in race 1.

Race 3 the wind shut down a bit making for some big shifts and difficult lumpy racing with Windward-leeward once around. James Costakis from Willmette won this race with second going to Ben Jassin of Wheeling Illinois, third was Mike Merkatoris of Green Bay showing that Northeast Wisconsin has some up and coming racers.

Race 4 the wind came back up and went a bit right. Kevin Campbell won tis race. Kevin is starting Medical School at UW this fall and completed his senior season as the UW Sailing Team Co-captain. He attended two or three College Laser Nationals and showed great skill in the heavy air. Hyde Perce was second with Bruce Martinson in third., Rodion Mazin a 25 year old talented sailor from Chicago was fourth.

Race 5 and 6 were won by Gordy Lamphere, showing how good sailing genetic material passed to him from his father Chuck an legendary heavy air Laser sailor from the late 70's and early 80's has been translated to a new generation. Mark Kastel was second in the fifth race. while Kevin Campbell took second in the 6th race.

In the Radial division, Carrie Bargren another Wisco racer led the way with impressive sailing for all 110 pounds. Where were all the supposed expert Radial Sailors from District 20 on a fine summer day? I guess Madison is just too fun a town for Radial Sailors.

On Sunday, no real consistent wind developed. Since so many fine races were held on Saturday the start of the first race was delayed to a more civilized 1100. The wind sort of picked up 10 minutes before 1100 but by the time the fleet got out and settled, the wind went totally flat and the racing was abandoned.

This was the biggest regatta in Madison this summer and we thank everyone who helped make it a success. Next year the College Sailing Nationals will be held at the Hoofer Sailing Club. A 10 day marathon of three events, Womens, Team Racing and Dinghy Nationals along with an open college alumni regatta, probably in Techs and 420's with as many as 100 competitors. Contact the team about volunteering.

We want to thank Robert Krebs of the Madison Sailing Center for hosting and storing all the boats, Mendota Yacht for supplying large buoys and the perfectly sized small whayler. Joanne (Chicago) for helping RC. Jeff Russell for helping adjust marks on Saturday and Sunday and taking great photos. Dan Fix for support boat on Sunday. Jesse Pfammeter of Hoofers for helping with registration. Dave Sebald for breakfast. FLSbanners in Sturgeon Bay for the Visors, Laser Performance for the hats, APS LTD for the award gift certificates. Walgreens for the instant photos. The PRO Dierk Polzin did an ok job getting the racing off timely and setting appropriate courses, for his efforts he was given some cursory applause.

Next year's District 20 Grand Prix will probably be in Milwaukee in early August.

Thanks for coming and making all the effort worthwhile.