This was about the 6th battle for Patrick Clarke and his venerable USS Houston. Patrick and his two sons, Matthew and James, took turns at the controls. I was driving a brand new z-38 destroyer, a 22 second twin rudder ship that should be able to have its way with the slower Houston. Unfortunately, my attempts to sink the Houston proved to be in vain. In fact, I found myself crossing Patrick's stern more than once.

Patrick did a great job of giving me a bunch of crummy oblique shots. The above photo shows one of those moments, when I got a few shots on his stern. Let me go on record as being AGAINST 23 second cruisers.

We had a great crowd! Bob Eakin came with his Washington (shown above). Between Bob and Ted, and that venerable Houston, the Allies really dished it out to the Axis. Fluegel's Baden, Jeff's Kongo, Darren's Westfallen, and my z-boat rounded out the fleets. Bryan Finster brought his nearly completed Mogami out to the lake as well, for a test drive.

I came unprepared, in that I didn't bring any silkspan. Unfortunately, the z-38's luck ran out, and I had to patch about 10 holes during the day. This was a lot of patching for my small, fast, and manueverable ship! Most of the damage came during a one-on-one battle with Patrick Clarke!

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