Lightning Circuit: Light & Long

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).

(Saturday, March 18 - St Pete, FL) Today was a long day for the Lightning gang. We left the dock today at 8:15am in hopes of a start at 9:30am in a very light northerly. Our PRO Bob Johnson pulled off a start but shortly thereafter the wind lightened and faded left about 40 degrees. Then 10 minutes later, it faded back to the right, then lightened on the sides and finally died in the middle in a long painful gasp. The fleet, well spread, ghosted around the top mark as 3 horns were sounded...seemed like they were tough to hear above the cheers from most of the fleet.

For a couple hours the fleet drifted around, waiting for the sea breeze to fill in. There were several valiant attempts, but then it would die back and fill from the North. Finally around 1:30pm, the westerly began to fill and the race was started in a nice 5-8mph. Most felt the breeze could phase right and with the flooding current, so the right side was the pick. Sure enough, it was the right at the top end of the beat that indeed proved to be the way to go.

Our team, steered by Steve Davis with my wife JoAnn and yours truly as crew, finagled through the shifts and weeds to round first followed by Debbie Probst and Tom Allen Jr. Frankly, we felt as though it might be somewhat of a parade as the course was a simple windward-leeward-windward. The positions did not change until half way up the last beat when the breeze began to fade once again...and back to the left. Many of us were not very prepared for that switcheroo, and at the finish the lead was well up for grabs. After several traded tacks, weed patches and puffs, we managed to hold onto the lead with Mark Allen from Michigan closing in for second and Tom Allen Jr a close third.
There were many jumbled places this last leg with nearly half the fleet falling victim to the 30-minute finish rule…that is if you didn't finish within 30 minutes of the race winner you were scored DNF. Tough day for sure. Later that evening, the Stark family hosted a very well attended party on the yacht club dock held on Ernie Dieball team's boat. I think, as usual, everyone was there and lots of stories and disappointments were shared. As the party progressed the mood lightened for sure! Hopefully tomorrow will bring better sailing...but the forecast begs to differ with more light winds predicted. - Greg Fisher

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