SBJSA Lightning Clinic- A great Success!
On Friday July 11th at around 9:30 the 2nd annual SBJSA lightning clinic began. There were 11 lightnings that lined the Sodus Bay YC parking lot. I knew we were already off to a good start. The teams for the day would include a veteran lightning skipper (in most cases the boat owner) and 2 junior sailors. The day started with rigging and getting to know your team. Once the boats were rigged and launched we began the morning sailing session. The morning sailing session was done in order to get the young sailors familiar with the lightning as well as their new skipper for the day. It was a bit rainy but the teams geared up and headed out anways. It was time to practice!
After the morning sailing sessions the teams came in for lunch and some relief from the rain. The teams sat under the SBYC pavillion eating sandwiches provided by Mark & KC Costich. Once everyone was full we headed out for the afternoon session. The afternoon sailing session consisted of 4 races. The races were basic once around, winward leeward courses. Durning the 4 races there were a couple of juniors who became lightning skippers for the day. AJ Murphy from Willowbank YC was the junior lightning sailor and skipper of his teams all junior boat. AJ and his team had a great afternoon and ended up in 2nd after losing the tie breaker for 1st place.
After the races teams sailed in to derig and awaited the awards presentation. I believe the day was a great success. The juniors were able to sail a different boat than the ones they sail everyday. The juniors were also able to learn from some of the top lightning sailors not only in the area but in North America. Two of the junior sailors even went onto getting crew jobs for the weekends Lightning Districts/Centrals Regatta.
The results will be posted. You can find photos from the even at slcimagery.com taken by Tim Jones the photographer and mark set boat for the day. Feel free to add comments I'd love to hear what others learned from the day. I'll start....
SBJSA lightning Clinic 2008:
-Real sailors sail rain or shine
-Volunteering at a jr event is a great way to meet potential crew
- scostich's blog
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Was just looking through Tim's photos at slcimagery.com, and I felt like I was at the clinic. Nice shots! If I had money, I'd buy a photo or two. I like this picture, and have named it "Pretty boat, Ugly skipper". Hope Billy enjoyed his hot ride!