Steve and Tyler at the
70th Anniversary Regatta
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Now that the summers over we
are back to school in Vermont and have returned the Lightning
back to the class. The whole boat grant experience has been
awesome. Everyone in the Lightning Class are nice people and
talented sailors who are always willing to go out of their way
to help you out. I enjoyed many conversations both on and off
the water with many sailors. The other boat grant recipients are
all awesome people. We became great friends with all of them and
will stay in contact for years to come.
Our year started out at the
Early Bird Regatta hosted by Cedar Point. We had never really
sailed a Lightning before, so just learning what all the lines
did was a challenge. The next regatta we sailed was the 70th
Anniversary Regatta. That was great because it truly showed us
what the Lightning Class was all about: good sailing, good
times, good people. After that it was time to get serious and
qualify for NA’s. The Corinthian yacht club hosted a great New
England Championship. We did well in the one light air race on
Saturday. On Sunday there was much better wind and we sailed two
bad races and two good ones. Unfortunately, we were OCS in one
of our good races so that dropped us down to ninth for the
regatta. Good thing the top 11 qualified.
We decided to go to Rock Hall, MD for the Atlantic Coast
Championships after hearing about how unique of a regatta it
would be. Everyone was expecting light air, but the wind ended
up being great on both days. However, our results were sort of a
disappointment. We only got off the starting line clean in two
races, which is never a good thing, but our boat set-up was also
way off. After talking to some other Quantum sailors Saturday
night, was we ate delicious BBQ at the club, we figured out that
we were sailing with way too much pre-bend and not quit enough
lower tension in the moderate to heavy wind and flat water we
were sailing in. Sunday went a little better. We had a decent
first race in lighter, shifty conditions. The second race we won
the pin and tacked on the first lefty. Half way up the beat the
wind went back right and we lead back. Unfortunately, that
righty was progressive and we got hung out to dry on the left.
Stuff like that is bound to happen, but at least we learned a
lot about the boat.
The North Americans in
Newport did not really go as well as we had hoped, but never the
less it was a fun, well run regatta. Unfortunately, Tyler
couldn’t sail the event but we got Matt Clark, another Vermont
sailor, to step in. Two days before the event I came down with
something and was really sick for the qualifier series. That
definitely didn’t help but we also didn’t manage the top 1/3 of
our upwind beats very well and ended up getting bounced around
in the middle too much which lost us a lot of boats. We had a
couple of pretty good starts in the qualifier series and sailed
really fast downwind but in the end couldn’t put together full
races. We had a 10th on the first day but with the
rest of our races in the high 20’s or low 30’s we ended up in
the yellow fleet. In the end we sailed a consistent series in
the yellow fleet and ended up third.
I would like to thank
everyone in the Lightning Class who helped us out this summer.
First off the whole Boat Grant Committee for giving us this
wonderful opportunity. Our mentor Bill Healy and also Bill
Fastiggi who sort of acted as a mentor as well. Of course Jan
from the Lightning Office who handled pretty much everything.
Brian Hayes helped us out a lot with a bunch of rig and tuning
theory and getting our mast straight at the beginning of the
season. Skip Dieball for donating a new set of Quantum sails.
Geoff Becker and his team of Danny Rabin, John Mollicone, and
John Loe for helping us with tuning the Quantums and lots of
other Lightning specific things. It was a great summer and a
once in a lifetime experience. Tyler, Steve, and I all loved the
Lightning so if anyone needs crew next year contact one of
us.
