Charles C. Patton Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

time, she makes it to the Olympics. She made a try once
9
efore
in 470'n, in the girls competition, but this time, she's the
skipper, and her husband is the crew, and she's the only wo an, I
guess, to compete against the men in the Olympics in t'Tornadosn.
Well, one time, we decided to buy a "Star" boat, so we
bought one that had belonged to Harry Nye, Harry Nye was world
champion Star sailor at one time and we bought his boat. It was a
wooden boat and it had a wooden mast and I think its number was
4110, if I remember correctly. But we sold the Star and I think
it still is at the Yacht Club, somewhere. I remember going out
one time. We had a very special wooden mast that Harry had made,
that had a core made out of very light cedar, and it was very
light weight. It was supposed to be very strong. I went out one
time with somebody in the evening one time and we had a light
breeze, and a fitting on. . . one of the side stays gave way
and the mast broke in the middle. We had to sail home with a
broken mast, and I was very perturbed about that. I still have
the mast. But, we got another wooden mast, and we sailed the Star
boat together. We went up to Peoria and sailed in the "Last
Chance Regatta", and Bobbie and Lew sailed together in the Star.
Then, they got interested in "Thistles", and they sailed
Thistles. Bobbie had her own Thistle that she would skipper, and
tew would crew for her. She did quite well. Beat a lot of the
men here at the Island Bay Yacht Club. Well, Lew died and she
died and we sold one of the Rebels and the other one, I gave
away, and since then, I haven't done any sailing, but I did do a
lot on the Race Committee boats and helped with the Race
Committee when they ran the National Championships for the Snipes
and we ran another National Championships for, I forget what it
was, but anyhow, the race committee at the Island Bay Yacht Club
won the St. Petersburg Trophy for the best run regatta in the
United States that year.
Q. What year was that?
A. Forget what year that was.
Q. What was your favorite boat, when you look back?
A. I didn't have any favorite boat. We had a rather large class
of "Rebels" here at Island Bay, and the group we sailed with was
a lot of fun. I wasn't a good competitor, really. I liked the
people and I liked to crew far Bobbie cause she gat such a kick
out of winning. . . I like the Rebel, it was a good boat, low
maintenance, easy to sail, I could sail it single handed, in very
heavy weather.
Q. Would you like to crew for the Star sometime again?
I
A. NO' I can't do that anymore. My arthritis is too bad.1 It's
no fun. That's the reason I quit otherwise I'd be sailiqg like
Ted Morph. He's in his 80's and he's been sailing the Thidtle.