2008 Central New York District Championship

August 12-13, 2008 - Sodus Bay, New York

         Sodus Bay Yacht Club hosted the 2008 Central New York Lightning Championships as part of the "Centrals" regatta, which included lasers, optimists and 420's, on a seperate course. Seventeen boats competed.

         Saturday the forcast was for fair weather and PRO Jerry Dodge took the Lightnings out the channel into Lake Ontario, about a 45 minutes sail from the Yacht Club dock. The breeze was off-shore, and light, about 4-6. The day would prove to be all about staying in the pressure, where ever you could find it.

          In the first race the line was just a bit pin end favored, soon after the start most of the fleet had flopped onto port and took a long tack the right side. Clay Murphy was the first one to get that way and had a healthy lead at the top mark, followed by Kirk Reynolds and Jed Dodge. Positions remained the same for most of the race until the final run, when Kirk and Jed jibed before Murphyand got into new breeze first. Reynolds started the series with a first, Dodge second, Murphy third.

        In the second race most of the fleet again headed for the right side of the course up the first beat. While Reynolds, Bob Wardwell and Jack Jones dug left. This time the left would come in and those boats let at the top mark. Reynolds held on for his second bullet, followed by Wardwell and Jones.

         The third race again saw Reynolds leading the charge to more wind on the left off the starting line. This time Bob King and Jed Dodge paced were close behind. Reynolds was in the middle of the three boat pack that was easing away from the fleet on starboard. When he took his first tack of the race on the port tack lay-line Dodge could only manage a tack three lengths to leward. King, who had been to leward on the last tack was forced to go out a few more lengths and tack off his hip. The wind went a bit left and those three boats made the weather mark with a fair lead. Again Reynolds lead, followed by Dodge and King. The three boats showed supurb patience downwind by allowing one another clear air and by the bottom mark they had doubled their lead on the fleet. The rest of the race was a bit of loose covering and at the finish it was Reynolds with his third bullet, then Dodge, then King. With a storm brewing on the horizon the race committee sent the fleet for the club.

        Sunday there was more breeze, and thunderstorms in the forecast. The race committe therefore decided to keep the fleet in the bay. The sky was grey and spitting rain for the first race, the breeze was strong enough to put three on the rail. At the start the pin was favored and the mark was rather far right. It made tacking off the line nearly essential. King got off at the pin and was looking good with Reynolds and Hallagan to leyward and ahead. Toward the top the breeze went a little right and the leyward boats were able to get across. Reynolds lead again, Hallagan was second, King was third. Down the run Hallagan got inside Reynolds and took the lead. He was able to stretch it up the next leg with a few covering tacks. Dodge had a nice recovery off the right side. At the end it was Hallagan, Reynolds, Dodge then King.

        After the forth race the rain came, absent much wind. Everyone froze for an hour and we cursed the sport of sailing. Finally another course was set. In this race King and Murphy were able to get a jump off the line and get headed to the favored right side of the course. They maintained position and were followed across the line by Wardwell.

          In the last race John Newell, the former Junior North American Champion, port tacked the fleet. He had a nice lead half-way up the beat, followed by King who was able to get off at the pin end as well. Newell made a consolidation tack that cost him first at the top mark. At the bottom mark King led, followed by Newell, with Hallagan, Wardwell, Reynolds and Dodge close behind.  The race committe shorteded the course to three legs at that point. Wardwell was the only boat to stay on port the whole third leg and when he caught a lift to get him across the line without tacking the victory was his, Newell stayed in second, King was third, Hallagan fourth, Reynolds fifth and Dodge sixth.

Overall Results Here: http://www.centralssailing.org/Regatta%20Results/2008sbyc/HTML%20Reports/lightning.htm