Lightning Circuit: Wind vs Party

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).

(Friday, March, 17 - St Pete, FL) Well, I was wrong. The fleet blossomed to 72 boats overnight! This is probably one of the biggest turnouts in several years. It is great as there are many new and enthusiastic faces!

Unfortunately the breeze wasn't as enthusiastic this morning and an easterly fought the westerly trying to develop. Champion PRO Bob Johnson made numerous wise decisions today, holding the fleet on shore with several postponements waiting for good news to come from his "scouts" placed at different places around the bay. The good news never came and the races were eventually called for the day at 2:30pm.

Although the fleet waited it out on their trailers, the group found plenty to keep them occupied. First came lots of tuning and retuning...tensions gauges and tape measurers were passed all around the lot. Then came a little football led by the Lutz clan and finally Chantelle Leger opened up her “hair salon” and started trimming up the fleet with some high quality haircuts (see below). For a modest fee (a donation to her Yngling Olympic Campaign) one would receive a nice cut and a beer! I think she said she had 20 customers today. Yours truly was her last of the day...I asked Chantelle to trim out the grey but she said she only had an hour to get the job done.



Most of the fleet met for a dip in the club pool and a drink (okay, drinks) at the Tiki Bar after the races were abandoned (see below). Tonight we had our annual banquet at the St Pete YC - always a nice party and great food. The whole gang was there for a night of thanks to many of those who have helped make the Lightning Class what it is. Brian Hayes, secretary of the class, emceed the event and helped pass out the trophies. There's no doubt Brian will soon have his own late night show to compete with Letterman and Leno.



There were many well-deserved awards of thanks presented tonight, but a very special award that produced two standing ovations was the new Karl Smither trophy, which was presented to Anne Allen. Anne (Karl Smither's daughter) has done so much for the class, from being a very effective President to bearing the class's very active builder, Tom Allen Jr. Tom, too, received an award for his "above and beyond" efforts as builder to the class. It is never unusual to see Tommy working on someone's, anyone's boat after races, between races, anytime. He is always available and for sure, his type of dedication to the members helps the Lightning Class continue to grow.

As I said, there were numerous other awards that could and should be mentioned as well. It was pretty special that Class President Carter Utzig and the executive committee of the class personally presented mementos to all 37 boats who traveled all 3 regattas of the 2006 Southern Circuit. 37 boats was obviously a record. Savannah Deep South regatta winner, David Stark, organized a "50-50" raffle where the proceeds would be donated to help the devastated Gulf Yachting Association. John Steiner won the raffle and graciously returned half of what he had won as well. Nearly $1800 was gathered to help those struggling clubs recovering after hurricane Katrina.

So it is with the Lightning Class...there's always much more than just the racing. One of the top 5 skippers in the overall circuit said to a group this afternoon at the Tiki Bar, "Geez, I've never had so much fun NOT racing at a regatta!" Hopefully tomorrow will bring a bit more breeze. For sure it won't be windy but maybe we'll have enough to click off a couple races. But whatever happens, I am sure we'll have plenty to report! - Greg Fisher

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