Lightning 70th Anniversary Regatta

The Lightning Class 70th Anniversary Regatta was held in Skaneateles, NY, the birthplace of the boat and class, over this past July 4th weekend.  Lightning sailors from all over the country, and even as far as Finland, came in to celebrate their beloved square boat.  Over 120 boats were in attendance, meaning that close to 400 people were taking part in the sailing.  It seemed as though Skaneateles Country Club had a personal helper in place for every one of the sailors involved.  Needless to say, they did a fantastic job organizing the event.  From the Lightning Lab's with some great guest speakers on Friday to launching and hauling 120 Lightnings each day using the fleet of 4 wheelers, every detail seemed to be covered, and covered well...except for one.

The organizing committee spent so much time and effort taking care of all of the logistics that they forgot to order any wind for the event.  Despite the lack of breeze, two races for each fleet were managed and the class was able to crown its 70th anniversary champions.  Larry McDonald and his crew of his son Adam and Mike Healy topped the fleet by winning a tie breaker over Dick Hallagan and team.  Kirk Reynolds of Skaneateles was a close third.  The white fleet was won by Bruce Richards, followed closely by Cazenovia's Dick Tuttle in 2nd, and Pete Swartz in 3rd.  The wooden boat fleet was won by Robert Astrove, followed by Fisk Hayden in 2nd, and Onondaga Lake's Craig Thayer in 3rd.  

Sailors were greeted Saturday morning with very light breezes from a Northerly direction.  The blue fleet used up most of the good wind to have two general recalls before getting off the line cleanly on the third try.  Shortly there after, the wind died to next to nothing, and the boats were left to ghost slowly upwind.  Some boats went left to the west shore, some east to the other shore, and a few, like our boat, tried the middle.  After a long (well over an hour for the first leg) float up the lake, the left, the middle, and the right all converged on the mark at the same time.  In fact, the second fleet had caught up to many of the blue fleet to complicate the mark roundings a bit more.  It was quite a site to see the whole pack of boats rafted up at the windward mark trying to 1. make it around, and 2. not rear-end the boat in front of them.  As the fleet got to the mark, the wind slowly clocked to the west turning the offset mark into a mark to tack around instead of a mark to bear away around.  So after a tack, the boats ghosted about 500 yards back down the lake to finish the shortened course.  Taylor Lutz squeaked out the win in this race, followed by North American Champion Geoff Becker, Dick Hallagan, Larry MacDonald, and Jeff Linton.  In the white fleet Bruce Richard found his team intermixed with most of the blue fleet and squeaked out the win over Dick Tuttle and John Butler.  Bob Astrove won the woody race, followed by Craig Thayer in second and Fisk Hayden in third.  

After completing this race, about half of the boats assumed the day was done and headed to the docks.  This turned out to be bad assumption and a move that would come back to haunt a good chunk of the fleet, including our boat.  We were standing on the dock staring at glassy water when we heard that they would be starting another race.  Up went the sails, out came the paddle, and we paddled like a crew team to try to make it to the start line.  We were probably half way to the starting line from the dock when we heard the starting sequence for our fleet begin.  We decided that we would continue to paddle to try to get to the starting line, so that we could at least participate in the race, and then withdraw from the race afterwards for using our paddle after the sequence had begun.  A lot of people came up to me after withdrawing to question why I did it.  I feel that even in a fun regatta like this one, we should still respect the rules and enjoy the sailing, not the finishes.  The rules are there for a reason, so we should follow them.  If I had fouled another boat, I would have done turns even though it was a fun regatta, so why not obey all of the rules?  Anyways, back to the racing, we started the race about when the first spinnakers were going up, so I can't comment too much on the lead pack, though we did catch up to a bunch of boats who fell out of the breeze while we stayed in a small lane.  I think everyone took their turns at looking great for a few minutes and looking like toast for a few more.  Those of us who started about 10 minutes late actually were able to catch the lead pack and mix things up as the wind completely shut off on the leaders.  After making their way through the challenging conditions, Larry MacDonald ended up taking the gun in the blue fleet, John Schneider of Skaneateles won the white fleet, and Bob Astrove marked off another win in the wooden boat fleet.  

After racing all of the boats waited in queue to be plucked from the water, and sailors raided the beer tent for a happy hour.  Once again, complements to Skaneateles Country Club for managing to take care of and entertain a group of 400 sailors.  If you ever need advice on running a big regatta, call up this organizing committee and pick their brains!  Later that evening at the banquet several raffles were drawn including a new set of North Sails, a new Vermont Sailing Partners Spinnaker, and several articles of sailing gear.  The highlight of the dinner had to be Greg Fisher re-presenting the George Fisher Sportsmanship award to Tom Allen Jr.  Tom Allen Jr. is always putting others before himself and helping out with whatever repairs are needed, whenever, where-ever.  He certainly carries a large chunk of the responsibility for making the Lightning Class great over the years.  After the banquet sailors enjoyed some tasty "Lightnings" at the Mount Gay Rum bar, and then most called it a night fairly early.   

Sunday morning arrived with the promise of getting some racing in.  At about 8:00 in the morning, there was a nice southerly breeze at about 5 knots and people were getting excited.  Unfortunately as the temperature began to rise, the wind slowly shut off to be all but completely gone by the 10:30 start.  I think everyone enjoyed a nice swim in cool and clear Skaneateles Lake water.  We saw Jeff Linton catch a fish or two off of the back of his boat, and some others practicing some long distance swimming, trying to get the previous night's "Lightnings" out of their system.  After a while we paddled towards the hoist, and the fleet heard the anticipated three guns and the regatta was over.  The results after race 2 were final.  Results for all fleets can be found at http://www.lightningclass.org.

All in all, despite the lack of wind, this was a fantastically run event.  I think it's safe to say that everyone in attendance is looking forward to 10 years down the road when we can all return for the 80th anniversary regatta.