2008 Pennsylvania Governors Cup Lightning Regatta

The 2008 Lightning Pennsylvania Governors Cup Regatta was held the weekend of October 24 and 25th in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. Susquehanna Yacht Club hosted the event, with sailing on the Susquehanna River. The river is dammed up a few miles down, creating a beautiful sailing venue that is more than a mile wide in the primary sailing area. 15 lightnings braved the grim forecast to compete in the event. After some very tight racing, Charlie Wardwell and team emerged as the champions. Charlie and crew may also be the champions of the Saturday night party, though those official results haven't come in yet.

The Saturday forecast for Southeast Pennsylvania was miserable. Lots of rain, lots of wind, and unseasonably cold temperatures were predicted. The weather-people delivered as promised, though the rain held off long enough for three good races to be run. The day started with the famous quote "it's never like this here!" being tossed around. The wind was blowing from the South-Southeast at a good clip and building up quite a chop on the river. The problem was that the waves were crashing directly into the launching area, making the process extremely difficult. Eventually everyone figured out how to beat, or at least not get beaten too badly by, the waves, and boats were slowly launched. A few competitors set sail for the course, only to promptly return to shore and throw in the towel for the day.

Somewhere around 10 boats made the start of the first race. Jack Jones, my skipper, gave the vote as the dictator that we would be conservative on the day. That was Jack's way of saying that he did not want to go swimming! The first start saw the fleet split with about half going right and half going left. We went left, sailing on the hip of Charlie Wardwell the whole time.

Charlie and team rounded the windward mark first, with Bob Bush coming from the right to round in second. We rounded third, and headed down the run. I believe one boat (Pat Phelan & team) put their spinnaker pole up, but that was as close as anyone got to flying their spinnaker on Saturday. It would be a white sails only day. Charlie led all the way down the run and rounded the right gate to head up wind.

Meanwhile, Bob Bush's team and our team kept sailing downwind towards the finish line. Seems Charlie missed the memo about the one lap race. He recovered and ended up only losing Bob, holding onto second place. We wound up third.

The wind was up a bit for the second race, and we were in full hike mode with the rig depowered for much of the first beat. We again went left, and rounded the windward mark in second behind Pat Phelan. We held this position down the run and then decided to test the right side on the next upwind leg. Big mistake. We lost 2 boats from the left and made it to the windward mark right on the tail of the 3rd and 4th place boats. I guess I should say that we almost made it to the windward mark. We were caught off guard by a port tack boat as we approached on starboard. Jack through the tiller over to prevent a collision, and we almost went swimming. Actually, we kind of went swimming in the boat, as we filled it up to the seats with water. We then reached off and started bailing. About five minutes later we finally made it around the mark and headed downwind for the finish, waaaay behind the rest of the fleet. We decided not to worry about this finish and that we'd request for redress after we reached shore, as our score was significantly altered through no fault of our own. This was a good idea, and the protest committee agreed and granted us redress for race number 2. Here's the sequence of our "almost disaster":

In the third race we again guarded the left-middle of the course and rounded third. We held on to third through the finish of this one lap race. I don't remember too much about this race at the moment, though I do remember hiking a lot harder and being a lot colder than the previous two races. One boat wasn't so luck in this third race and they went for a full out swim (twice) near the finish of the third race:

We then pulled the boats out of the water and headed for the cover of the yacht club as the rain started to pour. Time to start the party….

Every lightning sailor should make an attempt to sail the PA Governors Cup at Susquehanna Yacht Club. Not for the sailing… the sailing is good, but you’ve probably had better. Instead, go or the party! They held an Octoberfest party, w/ all the beer/brats/kraut and potatoes that you could imagine. Did I mention they have a live Polka Band at this party? Yeah, they have a live Polka Band playing all of your Polka favorites. Gary and Joan Hurban showed everyone how it’s done on the dance floor. Charlie Wardwell and crew tried to steal the show with some of their younger polka moves, though I think my vote will still have to go to Gary and Joan as the winners of this dance off. As far as I know this dance off went long into the night, while I dozed off back at the ranch at around 9:30.

We were greeted Sunday with cold temps, no breeze, and lots of sunshine. The launch process was much easier on Sunday without the waves crashing in, and everyone drifted out towards the course. The wind eventually settled in from the southwest at a nice 5-10 mph.

We started the first race on Sunday at the pin end and committed ourselves to the left side of the course. A few minutes in I informed Jack that the right was filling in and looking really…really good. We decided not to bail out of our side and to wait for our turn at a good shift. I don’t think we ever got that shift, but luckily the right lost a lot of pressure and we snuck into the windward mark in about 3rd. Turns out the left had paid at the top of the beat. We picked up another boat downwind and followed Bob Bush up the final beat. We made some mistakes on this leg, and had we a do-over, we would have left Bob alone and guarded the left side of the course. Turns out, whomever got to the left of us passed us. We rounded the windward mark a disappointing 7th and held this spot to the finish. Bob Bush held on to win this race, and Charlie Wardwell had a nice comeback to get into the pointy end of the fleet.

The second race started and we told ourselves that we would not let anyone left of us in this race. We did just that and looked great all around the course. On the second upwind leg we caught a nice shift and emerged into the lead. We held our position to the left of everyone, and unfortunately for us Bob Bush sailed in a bit more pressure to leeward of us and snuck ahead at the windward mark. We gained on Bob on the final run, but he held on for his second win of the day.

We then headed for shore to pack up the boat and enjoy some nice cold left-over beer. At the end of the regatta we had managed to hold onto 2nd place.

First place went to Charlie Wardwell and crew, who sailed the most consistent regatta of anyone to take the pickle dish. Charlie can now put his name on a trophy that his father won multiple times a while back.

As I said, Jack Jones took second.

Pat Phelan and crew finished in third.

Bob Bush (who counted a DNS in his scoreline) won a tie breaker for fourth over Trevor Prior.

All in all, this was one of the more fun regattas I’ve been to. I’m looking forward to bringing my own boat sometime soon… maybe next year!