Lightning Circuit: Head'n Home

North Sails rep Greg Fisher and his team of JoAnn Fisher and Steve Davis will be keeping us updated on the this year's Lightning Southern Circuit, which began in Savannah, GA (March 11-12), continued on to Miami, FL (March 14-15) and finishes up in St. Petersburg, FL (17-19).

(Sunday, March 19 - St Pete, FL) This morning the fleet arrived bright and early (once again) to find a nice, but light, Northerly blowing down the bay. PRO Bob Johnson did a great job to get us off nearly on time. Most everyone felt the breeze would fade right as it also was supposed to die as the Northerly fought the sea breeze. Our team with, Steve Davis driving, had a decent start, great speed, and were able to get to the right just ahead of Neil Fowler and Tommy Allen. We felt that the breeze had faded right enough that a gybe set was in order...but it is challenging making that kind of decision when in the lead.

After we gybed, we all became very quiet - except for someone, maybe JoAnn - who broke the silence with a "ruh-roh." Seems that although we were actually aiming on course or maybe even below the leeward gates (we got that part right), we forgot about the offset mark, which the 71 boats behind us seemed to have remembered (that part we did not get right). After we finished passing around the oxygen bottle (we sailed in a true vacuum for about 5 minutes), we all commented on how expensive that kind of boo-boo was! I think we finished a solid 12th that race, but not certain as the official standings as of this report still have not been printed (I think there were some scoring issues in the last race - we'll get to that later).

We did complete 3 races in some very trying conditions for both the sailors and the race committee. Since the current was flooding quite hard by the second race, the race committee chose the Black Flag to help "discourage" the fleet from pressing the line (which was a tall order given that the current was pushing everyone over the line as the wind was from the North). There were a number of causalities, one of which was David Stark with his 2 brothers Joe and Tom. This was an especially tough break as there were not enough races to earn a throw...and it also may have affected the overall circuit results.

One of the real stories from the day was the shortened finish of the last race. Maybe 15 boats finished before the wind lightened some more, and the rest of the fleet - all 55 of them - stacked up right at the finish. I have never in my life seen such a pile-up at one mark (and I’m been around long enough to be able to say that)!

We think it may be because of this stack up, and the difficulty in recording finishes, that we don't have the official results yet. But we do know the following: there were a number of consistent finishers who did fare well in St Pete. The true champion was the Lutz family, this time with Uncle Jody steering (nephew Taylor and brother Jay crewing). I think on Sunday they clicked off a 10,1,1,2 - very remarkable given the conditions - to win the event over Brian Hayes, who was also consistent with a 7,5,7,7. Our team was third with a 1,12,9,18, tied with Bill Fastiggi who finished up 4th with 15,7,12,6.

Interestingly enough, the tricky sailing and tough finishes at St Pete (perhaps other than Stark's BFG) for both Linton and Stark didn't drop them out of the top two spots in the Overall Circuit. The Linton team finished up St Pete with a 11,15,13,14 to Stark's 14,21,74,2. Jeff Linton (with wife Amy and Mark Taylor) still ended up 4 pts ahead of Stark for the Overall Circuit win. Neil Fowler was third with Bill Fastiggi 4th and first time circuit sailor (winner of the newcomer award) Todd Wake in 5th.

It was indeed a hurried migration back North for much of the fleet. It seemed that on Monday, nearly every rest stop or gas station had a car and Lightning resting off I-95. Of course, the trek was not without stories. Al Terhune, who had the misfortune of blowing some computer chip in his dash on the way down to Savannah – losing all his dashboard gauges (including speed and fuel), had been unable to find a mechanic along the circuit route who could help with the repair. He made it ALMOST all the way home, however, a North Carolina State Trooper had no sympathy for Al's mechanical issues and added a hefty speeding ticket to the repair expenses.

Steve and Jan Davis left St Pete in 80 degrees and sun, but 18 hours later they're sliding along in 10" of snow on their way home to Colorado. Ched Proctor and I passed and re-passed each other twice I think... I was busy eating and he was busy napping! You almost need a long drive home to decompress, and prepare for life after the circuit

The 2006 Lightning Southern Circuit set records in all areas. The weather was the best ever, as we didn't see a rain cloud the entire week! There were 51 boats in both Savannah and Miami, and 72 in St Pete. 37 boats is by far the biggest number to make the entire circuit start to finish. And it was obvious everyone had a super time as well. Amy Linton, who organized the Circuit for the Class, did a great job keeping it fun while still providing some great, competitive racing. As we said before, there were plenty of new faces at each of the three events... and certainly next year we'll have even more! Come join us!



Rum Party
St Pete winners Jody Lutz, Jay Lutz, and Taylor Lutz
Southern Circuit champs Mark Taylor, Jeff Linton, and Amy Linton

Complete results are not yet online, but should soon be either on the class website or the SPYC website.

View all Circuit reports:
Savannah, Miami (One, Two, Three), St Pete (One, Two, Three, Four)