The Lars Chronicles:

MWC Nats 2004

The Best Nats So Far

 

by Lars

 

Copyright (C) 2004 by Larry S. Dahl

 

It wasn’t until the Monday before Nats that I knew for sure that I could go.  Work had been a bear from last September up until mid-May, but for the last two months it had been slowing down, and so was I.  Still, there was this task, out in South Carolina, at the customer’s lab, and they needed someone there on the Monday of Nats to hold their hands while they installed the commercial software our product required.  I was the obvious choice to go, as I was the one who did the same job in our lab, and had wrote the manual on how it was done.  I sat down with the boss, and told him that I would like to go on vacation that week, but if he wanted, I’d fly to South Carolina.  The boss looked at me, and after a moment of thought, said, “Vacation is therapeutic.  You look like you could use some.  We’ll send someone else.”  Turns out the boss knew what he was doing.  According to the story that I was told when I got back, when they turned on the computers to begin on Nats Monday , smoke started drifting out of it.  You can’t blame me or my wiring skills on this one, I never had contact with the machine.  The project was delayed for a week while the hardware guys poured over the beastly thing.

 

I was somewhat relieved at getting the go-ahead from work, because I was half hoping that I could make it, but now I was in trouble, because I wasn’t ready.  I’d done some boasting to Ron Horbul that I’d have the Tiger ready to go and team with his Lion, but other tasks (like a late refinance of the home loan) had slowed that project down to the point where to get it done I’d have to knock myself out.  I needed a vacation, and I wasn’t in the mood for a week of late nights before I went to Nats.  So it was back to Bellerophon.  In fair shape from her last fight, all she needed (I thought) was a new hull skin and fresh coat of paint.  That was more manageable.  I relaxed a bit, and started work.

 

The work was made more manageable in the fact that my two boys, Grant and Andy, who have accompanied me to my last two Nats, were way behind in some required school work, and there was no question that they would be going.  It was time to show them that their home-schooling mother and I meant it when we said that ‘school comes first’.  But it felt rather odd for me, not having to worry about them or their boats.  Grant’s ship was still in the dockyards, getting an overhaul, but Andy’s was in good shape.  I’d even used it earlier that year, up until I decided that I should fix up my own boat and quit getting his sunk under the guns of Bob Hoernemann’s Warspite.

 

On Friday Bob called up, and we discussed our drive down.  We were to take my stuff, Bob’s stuff, and Ron’s ships, because Ron had to stick around for a wedding on Saturday, and wouldn’t be driving down until Sunday.  “Can you be here at 6:00 AM so we can leave at 7:00?” he asked.

 

I’m a night owl, and like to sleep in.  I tried to bargain for a few more hours of sleep, but only managed to get one out of Bob.  Oh well, at least once I picked him up, he could keep me awake while I drove.

 

Saturday came, and my wife pushed me out of bed at 5:50 AM.  I’d had the boys help me load the truck the night before, as they were more nimble and I was growing fat.  Soon I was packed.  I gave the boys, my wife, and my three girls all a big hug, and then shoved off by 6:50.  Wouldn’t you know it but there was road construction between my house and Bob’s, and thus I was twenty minutes late in getting to his house.  Then we had to load.  There was one more ship than I had room for on my ship table platform in the back of the mangy Ranger’s topper, and we had to scramble to figure out how to get all the stuff in.  I left the packing of the last ship to Bob, since it was his, but I did offer to leave the Tiger behind, which I was taking along ‘in case I was bored and had nothing to do.’   I should have known better.

 

Finally, we were almost packed when Kevin Bray called.  He’d left something behind, and wanted Bob to bring his.  He called again a few minutes later, this time with Gerald Roberts on the phone, as Gerald suddenly had room when Jim Pate had to back out of Nats due to a family problem.  I had just managed to wrangle a single room (one that Patrick Clarke had surrendered when he got Dana Graham’s room) out of the Nats hotel clerk, and after all that work I had started to look forward to a nice quiet room to myself.  I hemmed and hawed and thanked him for his kindness, but finally told Gerald that right now I ‘kind of wanted a room to myself’, but that I might join him later in the week.

 

Well, we were out of Bob’s driveway about ten minutes to eight, only fifty minutes late.  Bob was instantly feeling like he’d left something behind.  “I always leave something behind, I just hope that it’s something you can buy down there.”  I told him.

 

It wasn’t long before he remembered that he’d left some pictures that he wanted to give to Kevin Bray.  Later he remembered some gag that he’d left at home.  Then down in Missouri he remembered a third thing.  I didn’t discover my forgotten item (soldering paste) until Wednesday, so I guess I did pretty well.

 

As we drove there was a fairly steady stream of conversation.  Bob, that social butterfly, wanted to make it down in time for ‘supper with the gang’, so we only stopped twice.  Of course, I had to show off how out of it I was by forgetting which side of the truck the fuel cap was on, when I pulled up to the pump for our first refueling.  Bob matched me by not properly triggering the gas with his ‘pay at the pump’ credit card.  I went in to use the restroom while he went digging for his travel directions, which were buried in the bottom in the back of the truck.  When I came back we had to start the pump over.

 

We took the scenic route through the capitol of Iowa, right past the capitol building itself.  There was tons of road construction on this stretch, but somehow they’d managed to keep two lanes open in each direction, and on a Saturday afternoon we just breezed through without any problems.

 

Later on, we passed Royal’s Stadium in Kansas City.  Our home town Twins were playing the Royals and we’d been listening to the game while we drove.  But somehow the Twins had scored four runs, and I had no idea how.  Bob did, however.  “I’ve learned how to listen to baseball while I talk,” he said.  There’s another skill where I guess he’s got me licked.

 

We had our second stop on the freeway between Kansas City and Saint Louis, just ten miles before we turned off to head for Rolla.  Bob made it into the restroom while I was pumping, but told me “You better go at McDonalds, I got in just in front of a big line from that church bus over there.”

 

The last stretch of road, after we passed through the Missouri capitol city, was down to two lanes, and had several curves.  “I hope Ron doesn’t get sleepy in this stretch of road,” I said.

 

We finally reached Rolla, only forty minutes behind Bob’s planned arrival time, and located the motel.  We drove around the parking lot and then stopped at the office.  Inside we found Fluegel and his son Dallas.  We exchanged pleasantries.  Then Bob and I got our rooms.  For some reason the lady clerk, when she heard my name, shook her finger at me, and then asked if I wanted a non-smoking room instead of a smoking room, which is what she’d told me I would get when I finally got her to give me one.  So she moved me from room 146 to room 144.  “Should be able to remember that number,” I said, thinking of my duties as TF144 Ediot in chief.  But I was puzzled because Luis Gomez ended up with room 146, and it was also a non-smoking room.  Go figure.  But Luis got a king size bed whereas I only got a double.

 

Well, as Bob’s stuff was on top, we went to drop off his and Ron’s stuff first.  We were soon surrounded by other model warship combat captains.  The Melton brothers, Tom and Mike, along with Mike Tanzillo, were in a room nearby.  Ted Brogden and Swampy were a few rooms further down.  Kevin Bray also joined us. 

 

We saw Tom first.  “Ah, Tom Melton!” I said.  A few minutes later Mike appeared.  “Ah, Tom Melton’s brother!” I said. 

 

Tom laughed,  Oh, I see it’s who you meet first!”

 

With each captain we met, it seemed like the first question we got was, “Where’s Ron?”  We started out by telling the truth, but we quickly tired of that response.  Later, Bob claimed it was he who started it, whereas I remember it as being me, but Ron’s staying behind to attend a wedding soon became ‘staying behind for HIS wedding’. 

 

“Oh really,” said most folks.  Some were amazed that his new wife would let him run off to a boat meet immediately after getting married.  “Must be some woman to let him go like that,” they said.  Others were concerned that future anniversaries would keep Ron from attending future Nats.  Only Bryan Finster pushed it further. 

 

“I thought he was already married,” said Bryan.

 

“This is his third wife,” we told him. 

 

If Bryan had pressed it further by asking if Ron had divorced his previous wives, or was widowed, I planned to respond, “Oh no, he’s a Mormon.”  I told Bob about it after he left, and we had a good chuckle.

 

Well, since we’d driven ourselves to get down here in time to join the other captains for the evening meal, we next got ready for that event.  Somehow I got all sweaty unloading my stuff, and found that most everyone had ‘gone to Shoney’s just up the road’ while I took a quick shower.

 

They were all in the back, having a good meal and lots of yucks while everyone caught up with everyone else that they hadn’t seen in a year or two.  I joined the party late and took a seat next to Chris Grossaint and Jim Coler.  I didn’t know Jim too well, but we started off well.  Grossaint had warned him that he ‘had to watch what he says because Lars will write it down.”

 

When the waitress delivered a plate for someone nearby, I asked if I could place an order.  “Oh, you wanted to eat too?” asked the waitress in a ‘haven’t I got enough to do with this crew’ attitude.  I ordered the steak and shrimp special, and when the steak came I asked the waitress where the shrimp was.  She didn’t even get to answer. 

 

“It’s at the buffet,” said Grossaint, in a tone that suggested that everyone knew that.  The waitress just raised an eyebrow in confirmation. 

 

Later during our conversation, however, we started off on the subject on what things were like in the old days.  “Back then we had to make everything from scratch,” I was saying.  “Guns, pumps, switches, props.”

 

“Back when they made ships out of rocks,” said Jim, cracking Chris and me up. 

 

“Now I have to write a Lars Chronicle this year, just for that line,” I said.

 

After the meal, it was back to the motel for the standard Saturday Night ‘Check for Leaks and Paint the Waterline” job in the bath tub.  As usual, minor leaks were found in the area around the props. 

 

I’d left my masking tape at home (the other forgotten thing!) and stopped by Ted and Swampy’s room on the way to Bob’s room.  We got to chatting about how fast some folks progress.  “For some folks, it takes forever to get out of their first year,” said Steve.  Then he turned to me.  “When are you going to do so?” 

 

In addition to the waterline, I also got one ship test out of the way.  Luis Gomez had a drop test kit, and said that the CD had told someone to go ahead and start testing.  So the tester went from Axis to Allied and back to Axis and so forth, so that the tests were done by someone on the other side.  The Bell passed in three straight drops.  I took the tester and found an Axis, Tim Beckett, I think.  I also found Ted Brogden and Swampy, and they went with to do the test so I went back to my room for some more work.  I also opened up the water tight box to swap the radio crystals.  I’d been set to swap them earlier but when Brian Lamb had backed out temporarily, I thought I didn’t have to, but with his situation reversing the next day I now had to do it.  I wistfully pulled off the lid, extremely confident that this was the only time that I’d have to go into the box for the rest of the week.

 

Bedtime was about 2:00 AM.

 

Sunday:  It was out to the lake early on Sunday.  Bob had a number of ships to test.  <Bruder_241>  I had one but as I have had problems in the past few years, that was enough for me.  We loaded the ships on the platform that we’d used on the trip down, but without the other luggage I was rather nervous about them staying there between the motel and the lake.  I had guessed correctly, despite my best efforts, the carrier took a tumble, along with Bob’s cruiser.  Fortunately damage was minimal.  Bob did whine about the loss of several anti-aircraft guns.

 

As we were getting out of my truck, Bob picked up a button that was on my dash.  It was a button from Camp Snoopy, the amusement park in the Mall of America, back in Bloomington Minnesota.  It proudly proclaimed, “It’s My Birthday!” and had been given to my daughter Lauren when we took her there for her birthday the previous September.  She’d been embarrassed to wear it, and had taken it off as soon as we’d left, and was thus in my possession.  “Here, wear this,” said Bob.  Despite being a New Year’s Eve baby, the antics with Ron’s Wedding had put me into a playful mood, and so I complied.  I got several birthday wishes throughout the day.

 

First things first for tests was the weight test.  Dave or Chris Au in years past had told me it was best to get weighed before putting the ship into the water, as the balsa sides, even without leaks, would absorb water into the siding.  Finster brought out his scale and plugged it in right next to Bob.  John Bruder produced a ship list with the required weights.  The Bellerophon and all of Bob’s ships passed their weights easily.  Lief brought his von der Tann up later, and found his ship a tad overweight.  “Must be the water,” I said.

 

“Oh, right,” said Lief.  He took the ship and flipped it over, and water poured out..  He placed it back on the scale, and it was now a quarter pound under the limit.  “Thanks,” said Lief, and went to get his test sheet for me to sign.  He wasn’t the only one.  John Bruder had a ship that came in just legal.  It also was much better after he removed some water from the hull.

 

With the two easiest tests done, I next went for the regulator test.  This one I usually failed the first time around.  Once again Finster came through with a test gauge.  My regulator registered about 145 lbs. of pressure, and Finster signed my sheet.  Now all I had left was the speed test, and it wasn’t even 11:00 yet.  I took my sweet time.  Bob, with several ships to do, had two of them up to speed before I took my ship down for her first run.  I was further delayed when during the systems check, I discovered that the pump would not run.  Bellerophon has two batteries, and plugging the pump direct to the battery kicked it off.  I had no desire to add another speed trial sink to my tally, so I decided to leave the pump hard wired to the battery.  I hoped I wouldn’t have to do several runs and thus drain the drive battery, as I hadn’t yet wired up the two new ones I’d purchased on Friday, and they were back at the motel anyway.

 

The first runs had the ship running a good second slow.  It was odd, however, how the ship was almost two seconds slower in one direction versus the other.  Jacob Bruder, who was doing my timing, also commented on it.

 

Well, despite my best efforts at remembering, I moved to a smaller gear which made the ship even slower.  I ran a speed run and discovered that it was true.  Embarrassed, I thanked Jacob for his time, and promised to be back shortly.  After moving to a gear with more teeth than the original, the ship came in at 27 seconds one way, and 29 the other, averaging out right at 28 which was what I needed.  With a heavy sigh, I figured I was done, and it was just a few minutes after noon.  When I tried to turn in my test sheet, Lief turned it down.  “We’re going to do two more tests,” he said.  “Hang on to it.”

 

So, I sat back and relaxed, watching Bob work his way through four ships.  I did feel a little guilty, but he seemed to be enjoying it.  Ron’s Lion had finished first, and Bob’s cruiser had passed quickly too.  His Warspite took a few runs to get it nailed down.  But the carrier was more difficult.  With each run it seemed that he knocked off more anti-aircraft guns.  He played with speed disks for about an hour.  Finally he was reduced to swapping props, trying to find the right combo.  <Bruder_239>

 

Bob wasn’t the only one having prop problems.  Jim Coler was sitting on the other end of the pavilion, and was complaining that 1 and 3/4 inch 27 pitch props were not to be found in either the inventory of Swampy or Charley.  “I’ve got a set,” I said.  Jim was reluctant to take them, as they were my last complete set of spares.  But since I did have two left handed props (the boys always seemed to break the right handed ones), he finally took them.  Well, I mentioned that they were ‘somewhat pricey’ and he handed me some cash the next day, so he took them home with my blessing. 

 

“Just don’t tell me you threw a prop later this week,” he said as he installed them. 

 

“Oh, I’ve got those two left handed ones, I’ll just put them on and reverse the one motor so I’ll only be crabbing through turns,” I said.  He didn’t seem to think that was a good idea.  “Then just pray,” I said, slapping him on the back.  There’s no rocks here that I can see.”

 

Jim did have something else that got him some attention.  He had homemade guns that instead of having plastic tubing to run the gas from the piston to the back of the magazines and to the breech behind the o-ring, they had brass metal tubing.  “Cool!” was the response that was heard most from those that saw them.  <Bruder_232>

 

As we were doing all these tests, we were also visiting.  Chris Kessler, who went to college in Rolla and was thus the Site Host’s assistant, finally found some time to work on his cruiser.  The cruiser looked like it had come straight from last year’s Nats to this one, as it was covered with patches.  <Bruder_228>  In addition to the patches, folks noticed that he’d painted “2004, Best Nats Ever” on the ship’s stern.

 

The Bruder’s, another one father, two sons team, were quickly done with the ship testing of their fleet.  <Bruder_227>  They spent a good deal of time helping out others, especially with the speed trials.

 

While I was roaming around, testing done, chatting with old friends and introducing myself to folks I didn’t know, I was chatting with the Florida group.  Bob and I weren’t the only playful ones, Tony Stephens took his radio frequency clothes pin (which were taken from the frequency board and attached to your transmitter), and instead of attaching it to his radio antenna, he attached it to my right nipple.  I yelped and jumped.  He laughed.  It didn’t bother me at all, except that he’d nailed my nipple directly and it refused to return to its original shape.  “I hope it doesn’t stay like that all week,” I scolded Tony.

 

At one o’clock, Lief Goodson, who was Contest Director for this year, called a captains meeting.  <Bruder_244>  At that time he and Kevin Hovis, the Site Host, described several things.  Lake rules, the site where we would set up the rest of the week, the CO2 setup, and lake depth.  We didn’t have a diver this year, and so Kevin had marked the lake depth at various places with yellow buoys.  The depth marked was about 4 1/2 feet, or about armpit level on Kevin.  <Bruder_233>

 

Lief also announced the additional two items that would be checked on the ships.  The down angle on sidemounts would be checked, along with the pump outlet.  Lief was handling the down angle checking.  Jeff Lide was given the task of checking the pumps, which he seemed to do with great pleasure.  “I’ve come to check your orifice,” he would say slowly.  “Your pump orifice.”  For some of the captains he knew better he accentuated his message by playfully slipping on a rubber glove.

 

After the captains meeting, it was discovered that Finster’s test gauge was 20 lbs. different from the ‘official’ gauges of Dave Au and Rick King.  Of course, my regulator was now showing up as 160 on the official gauges.  I’d been through this before, and set off to cleaning it.  After four attempts had refused to budge the value on the test gauge, I gave up.  Swampy had dropped a “Sunday Special” flyer on the tables and lightweight regulators were on special.  “I give up,” I told Bob.  “I’ll just get a new one.”  But Swampy had left so I had to wait to go back to the motel to finish the ship testing.  I knew it had been too easy.

 

Well, Bob finally got the CVL to make speed.  The ship had been receiving a lot of attention, both on the water and on the bench.  Bob did some more cussing as more work meant more displaced AA guns.  He’d made them out of electrical connectors, soldering a pin to them.  They made pretty good looking AA guns.  Chris Pearce took a look at them and said, “I can get you some that bend when they’re hit, for a decent price.”

 

“These are free,” said Bob.  “I’m an electrical contractor and I’ve got these coming out of my ears.”

 

“Go with it then,” said Chris. 

 

As he started to leave, Bob hollered after him, as he had been doing all afternoon, “Remember to vote for the Carrier for Best of Scale Convoy!”

 

With the days testing done, we slowly loaded up the ships.  I do remember certain folks wandering into the nearby tweaking area and testing their guns.  The Bruder’s guns sounded mean and nasty and I vowed to be very careful when in their vicinity on the water.  Brian Lamb was also tweaking, and at one point borrowed a file from me.  When he returned it, he said, “Thanks, I’ve now got all seven guns working for the first time.”  His new Iowa class ship had performed well in speed trials, but she’d not yet been tested under fire.  But Brian seemed to be quietly confident that his ship would do well on Monday.

 

As we loaded up the ships to go home, I dropped the table down to the floor of the truck, to prevent another mishap.  The ships barely fit in.  “I can’t wait for Ron’s truck,” said Bob.

 

Back at the motel, I dropped off Bob and his fleet.  I found Swampy roaming the parking lot, and gave him the money for a new regulator.  He asked if he could drop it off later, because Ted, his roommate, was taking a nap.  I needed a shower, so I said sure.

 

After my shower, I returned to Bob’s room and found that Ron had arrived.  Ron’s first words to me were,  Thanks for telling everyone I was getting married.”

 

“Not a problem,” I said.  Bob was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

 

“First I get is several handshakes and congratulations and all I can say is ‘huh’?” he grumped. 

 

“That’s what you get for being the last one here,” said Bob. 

 

It was time for supper, and soon a large group was headed for a Steak Buffet.  I’ve forgotten the name of the place, but it had a large statue of a cow on its roof.  Ron and I had fallen behind, but Bob was in his element, in the middle of all the others.  Ron and I took a seat on the end of the long set of tables the wait crew set up for us.  The food was decent but not great, the conversation was far better. 

 

When it was time to leave we started the walk back.  Ron and I had lagged behind on the way there, now with the main group, someone congratulated him on his recent marriage.  By this point he was tired of explaining also, so with a subtle dirty glance in my direction, he simply said, “Thanks.”

 

On the walk back, I had a lengthy chat with Rick King, another Lockheed Martin employee like me.  We compared notes.  Where I’d come to the company through a series of takeovers, he’d come after being laid off at Disney’s Epcot Center.  His description of working at Epcot sounded very compelling. 

 

There was an Allied Captains meeting after supper, in Doug Hunt and Chris Kessler’s room.  It was a large room, the ‘bridal suite’ they claimed.  Charley Stephens, the Allied admiral, gave his plans for Monday’s battling, and assigned us to two and three man teams.  He also picked one captain from each group to be in charge of that group.  Then he told us to go out and fight.  The opposing line up for the Axis looked tough, but it was hoped that we could hold our own during fleet battles and make up points in campaign. 

 

After the meeting I made a run to Walmart with Chris Kessler, to get some masking tape and other supplies, and some epoxy for Charley.  Someone had discovered that the rudders for the Class 5 or Class 6 boats were not as big as they could be, by rule, and folks were adding rudder surface area all over the place as the news spread. 

 

The next task was wiring up the new batteries.  I had to run back to Ron and Bob’s to borrow some solder (I later found mine), and got caught in a conversation with Ron, Bob and Jeff Lide.  Jeff had us all in stitches until he started a story on his wife complaining about him making boat noises in the shower.  To him it seemed the most natural thing in the world.  When we reacted differently, he stopped and asked, “Don’t you make boat noises in the shower?”

 

All that I had left to do was check out the pump.  I opened up the watertight box for the second time that week, expecting to find a bad micro switch, but to my surprise it was working fine.  I tried playing with the whole setup for some time.  The pump worked fine on the bench, not even a hint of trouble.  At this point I was getting mildly tired.  So I crossed my fingers and hoped that it was a one-time thing, and wouldn’t come back.  I put the box back together, loaded the guns, and then signed off and went to bed, about 1:00 AM.

 

Monday:

 

I got up once about 7:00 AM and peeked out the room’s peek hole.  I could see most of the vehicles still in the lot, so I went back to bed.  The first battle was scheduled for 9:00.  At 7:45 I got up again.  Half the vehicles were gone from the lot.  I hopped in the shower and then after getting dressed, loaded the truck. 

 

Just as I was coming out with the last items, I passed Fluegel.  “Fluegel, you just made me feel much better,” I said.

 

“Why,” he asked.

 

“Usually I’m the last one to leave the motel and the last one to get to the lake.  I guess I’m not doing so bad,” I said.

 

“Maybe you’re doing great,” he said, “but that bothers me.”

 

Out at the lake, I found a table in the pavilion, not far from Bob and Ron.  I was surprised, as the pavilion was not large enough for the whole group.  However, at least half of the battlers had brought tables and chairs and in some cases, tents, to set up down closer to the water’s edge.  The weather was perfect, about 80 degrees and sunny and a light breeze to keep things cool.  Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were hotter, but Friday was somewhat cooler again.

 

At this point, I usually try to describe the lake.  The best description I’ve come up with is as follows:  Think of a right triangle.  The right (or ninety degree) corner is on the farthest side of the triangle from the point where we battled.  The two sides running from the right angle are roughly equal in distance, and very straight (one reason, no doubt, why speed trials were done on one of them).  The third side of the triangle, the longest side, is not straight, however.  I’m embarrassed to say this, but looking at the map of the lake from above, the third side is more like the outline of a lady’s bosom, from above.  The bulk of our battling was done from the left bosom.  The right bosom did not go unused, but was closer to a playground, and so got less play.  A home base during campaign was set up there, in addition.  The cleavage between the bosoms narrowed to a point, at which was found a large stand of cattails, six to eight feet tall.  These cattails were enough to obscure sight of the lake and ships as one walked (or more likely, ran) from one bosom to the other.  Later in the week, someone pointed out that a bird was nesting in the cattails, and it would swoop in on anyone who came too close.

 

Bob Hoernemann had made a large map or the lake, and as the week went by and sinks accumulated, he’d put a flag on the spot where the ship went down.  The map, especially in the cleavage, soon filled with British, American, German, Japanese and Italian flags. <RobertsNatsLake>

 

But as I don’t think I can call the locations ‘left bosom’ and ‘right bosom’ and ‘the cleavage’ for the entirety of this account, I’ll instead refer to them as the ‘Left Bend’, the ‘Right Bend’, and ‘Cattail Cove’.  In addition, the cove down on the extreme left was partially roped off, due to a nearby handicapped playground that the Lions Club refused to have us close down.  This cove I’ll call Handicapped Cove.  The visibility was very good along the shore, except for moving from the Left Bend to the Right Bend, as there was a ditch behind the cattails and so captains tended to run with all haste behind the cattails in transferring from one Bend to the other.  By the week’s end a well-worn path had been created down in the ditch.

 

As for the shoreline, it started out the week being somewhat soggy.  The shoreline was ringed by long grass, and for those wearing shorts, it could be nasty.  I took a couple of scratches that left red marks on my legs for the rest of the week.  “I see you found the saw grass,” Chris Au told me at one point.  He too had some marked up legs.  However, as the week went by the grass go trampled down and the soggy shoreline got progressively muddy.  By Friday it was just down right gloppy.  Shoes and socks (for those who wore them) took a beating during the week.  Here’s a photo of some Axis captains late Monday <Melton_M_100>.  Up by the pavilion was a small water spigot, and most folks used it to wash off their footwear before leaving for the motel each day.

 

The Lineups:

 

As is normal, the lineups for the week remained relatively unchanged, but minor tweaking were done here and there as people left, or ships fell out due to malfunctions.  Friday saw a mass change in that the Allies, with nothing to lose, tried a Fast Fleet and a Slow Fleet.  But the line up for Monday morning shaped the battling for the bulk of the week.

 

Allied A:

Brian Lamb:  Brian was driving the 8 unit Wisconsin.  A new ship having had her sea trials the day before, it was hoped that she’d develop a punch later in the week to match the staying power of the big hull.  <Lamb_Melton>

Chris Grossaint:  Chris brought his tried and true class 6 North Carolina.  An experienced battler, he was expected to do some heavy hitting for the Allies.  <Grossaint_Roberts>

Jim Coler:  Jim hails from Colorado, like Chris, and had a North Carolina.  Unlike his compatriot, his ship was new and facing her first Nats.  It was hoped that Jim would be a nice match as a wing man for Grossaint.  <Coler_Melton>

Kevin Bray:  Driving his experienced class 6 Massachusetts, Kevin was another one expected to do well, as long as his rudder worked.  <Bray_Melton>

Dave Au:  Driving a class 5 Queen Elizabeth, Dave is a tough battler in any ship he captains, and the QEs are known to be slugger type ships.  <QE_Melton>

Doug Hunt:  Doug was driving a class 5 West Virginia.  The old American BB had a very wide beam, and looked like she could handle a lot of damage.  But as a newer ship, was she ready for a full week of battling?  <WestVirginia_Bruder>

Ted Brogden:  Ted was once again captaining the class 5 Valiant.  An experienced ship and captain his only problem was he spent too much time worrying about Lars.  <Valiant_Melton>

Lars (me):  The class 4 Bellerophon was the only Allied 28 second boat, and it had been mostly sitting on the shelf since the last Nats.  As such it was expected that it would be fish food.  It was only hoped that she would score some points on Axis ships on the way down.  <Bellerophon_Bruder>

Patrick Clarke:  Patrick was driving a class 4 Invincible.  Patrick had used the ship for some time, and it was expected to live up to standard I-boat expectations.  <Invincible_Melton>

Matthew Clarke:  The junior Clarke was driving the 3 unit Houston.  A natural cruiser captain, the shortest Allied battler was expected to be a major irritant with his well-worked cruiser.  <ClarkeHouston_Bruder>

Tom Brown:  Also driving a Houston, Tom was back in battling after a few years absence.  Would he be rusty?  <BrownHouston_Bob, BrownHouston2_Bob>

 

 

Allied B:

Kevin Hovis:  Kevin had the other Allied big boat, an 8 unit Missouri.  She had a few battles under her belt, but as site host, would Kevin be too tired to patch all the holes these big ships usually collected?  <Missouri_Melton>

Charley Stephens:  As Allied Admiral, Charley was bringing his well tested class 6 North Carolina.  <Charley_Melton>

Tony Stephens:  Like his brother, Tony was driving the North Carolina’s sister ship, the Washington, and the two who work so well as a team were expected to be the main punch for the fleet.  <Washington_Bruder>

Don Cole:  Don has been fighting for years, and was once again using his favorite ship, the class 6 Alabama.  Don has been a stalwart battler for years and was expected to be one again this year.  <Alabama_Melton>

Rick King:  Rick left his favored Scharnhorst back in Florida, and brought out a good looking class 5 Maryland.  That made him a natural wingman for Don.  <Maryland_Melton>

Bob Hoernemann:  Returning with his second year class 5 Warspite, and heavily refit over the long Minnesota winter, would the ship with the rotating polar bear head be more than just a flashy display?  <Warspite_Melton>

Mike Melton:  Mike was back with his class 5 Arizona.  After having done well the year before he was expected to hold his own against the raging Axis hordes.  <Arizona_Melton>

Ron Horbul:  Ron’s class 4 Lion was back for another go round.  Even if he had improved the turning on the arrow-like hull, he was still likely to get a lot of attention.  <Lion_Roberts>

Chris Kessler:  Chris Kessler, after improving every day during the previous Nats, was back again with his class 3 Brooklyn.  It wasn’t until later that I noticed in the pictures that he may have been using the same hull skin from the previous year as well.  <Kessler_Melton, Kessler2_Melton>

Pete Demetri:  Pete is one of the battlers whose name I’ve seen for years, but we’ve never crossed paths until this year.  He was driving a class 3 Des Moines with triple sterns.  It was a pity that he’d have to leave after Tuesday’s battling.  <Demetri_Melton>

Steve Milholland:  Steve showed up without a ship.  Bob Hoernemann gave him his class 3 Minneapolis and told him to ‘go have some fun’.  Would the honorary Minnesotan be able to handle the lutefisk smell and the Ole and Lena jokes long enough to bring the old cruiser’s guns to bear?  <Minneapolis_Melton>

 

 

Axis A:

Tim Beckett:  Tim had brought back an oldie but a goodie.  D.W. Fluegel’s old 1/150th scale Bismarck had been purchased and put through a complete refit.  Her first time on the water under Tim’s command were during speed trials.  The class 6 ship had a strange habit of turning hard while in reverse, could Tim get used to it?  <Bismarck_Melton>

Chris Pearce:  Fighting a well-worked class 6 Nagato, Chris is tough in any ship he has and was expected to be a major pain for the Allies.  <Pearce_Melton>

Steve Crane:  A new battler, originally from the east coast of Canada, but having since moved to warmer climes, Steve was an unknown to most of us, but his Nagato looked mean and nasty none the less.  <Crane_Bruder>

Gerald Roberts:  Gerald had also caught the Nagato bug.  However, I’m not sure if his was a new ship or one that he’d brought back after his stint in the Settsu.  I was going to miss that Settsu.  <Gerald_Melton>

Lou Meszaros:  Lou was back in the Italian big ship, the class 6 Vittorio Veneto.  The big boy had triple sterns that had a big bark, but he’s always seemed to be snake-bit in the past.  After taking a term at Charley U, could he shake out the technical bugs this year?  <Meszaros_Melton>

DW Fluegel:  DW had brought more than a couple of ships this year.  He’d also brought along his son Dallas.  Between the two of them and their two ships, the class 5 Baden and the class 2 Karlsruhe, they would alternate between days.  The old man started out on the big ship which he’d been fighting for years.  A 28 second ship, it had a haymaker that most folks respected.  <Baden_Melton>

Tim Krakowski:  Tim was back for another year with his Fuso, hoping for better times with the class 5 ship.  I’ve always wondered just how much that tower superstructure weighs, and what effect the wind has on it.  <Fuso_Melton>

Lief Goodson:  Lief was back in his tried and true class 4 von der Tann.  He’s always been a natural with this ship, and was expected to be a real pest.  <Lief_Melton, Lief2_Melton>

Chris Au:  Chris was driving a new class 4 French battlecruiser, the Strasbourg.  Always a tough nut who likes a challenge, Chris would go so far as to do the French thing and switch sides halfway through the week.  If you look at the photo, look for the stern gun that fired through the catapult mount.  <Strasbourg_Roberts>

Dallas Fluegel:  Dallas must have a very good looking mother, as he looks nothing like his father.  But as a rookie fighting his father’s ships, he was expected to do well, especially in the smaller class 2 cruiser Karlsruhe. <Karlsruhe_Bruder, Karslruhe2_Melton>

 

Axis B:

Bryan Finster:  Back with his class 6 Nagato with her rear pointing bow sidemounts, his ship was experienced and dangerous.  <Finster_Melton>

John Bruder:   The head of the Bruder clan, and President of the club for the year, John was driving his experienced class 6 Italia.  One of three big Italian boats, they figured to be returning some of the attention that they’d gotten in past years.  <JohnItalia_Roberts>

Josh Bruder:  Like his father, Josh was also sailing a class 6 Vittorio Veneto.  He was an experienced captain and was expected to do well.  <JoshVV_Melton>

Michael Tanzillo:  Mike was driving a Nagato this year.  Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to find out much about it.  But being that this was his third Nats, Mike should hold his own.  <Tanzillo_Roberts>

Tom Melton:  Last year’s rookie of the year, Tom was driving the Nagato he’d used the year before.  With another year under his belt, he seemed likely to improve.  <Tom_Roberts>

Rob Stalnaker:  A rookie captain from the east coast (Carolina?) he’d done some battling with the Florida gang.  A rookie captain driving a class 6 Tirpitz was likely to gain the attention of the Allies.  <Tirpitz_Melton, Tirpitz2_Melton>

Jeff Lide:  I keep thinking that Jeff’s Kirishima is a class 6 ship, as it resembles the Nagatos so closely, and the class 4 battlecruiser fights like it has the two extra guns of the bigger ship.  Maybe that’s why he occasionally forgets about his pump.  <Lide_Melton>

Jake Bruder:  The other Bruder brother (and son) likes the short, compact hull of the World War One German battlecruiser von der Tann, a class 4 ship, over the longer more elegant Italians.  His battling style was much the same, not flashy but rather steady.  <JakeVDT_Melton>

Luis Gomez:  Luis, after a good year as a cruiser captain the year before, opted for one more gun, and was driving a class 4 Kongo rigged up in the World War One configuration.  A good looking ship, it was not expected to have troubles after his Garibaldi had run so well the year before.  <Kongo_Roberts>

Randy Stiponivich:  Another von der Tann captain, the heavy camouflaged paint scheme was graced by a bright blue Smurf figurine on her stern.  The ‘Pirate Smurf’ proved to be as tough as Randy’s ship, surviving several direct hits and remaining standing.  Only the Pillsbury Dough Boy would have been more annoying than the Pirate Smurf.  <SmurfVDT_Melton, SmurfVDT2_Melton>