Lightning Winter Championship, St. Petersburg Yacht Club, March 16-19th
The Lightning class had a great start to the season at the Lightning Winter Championship on the beautiful Tampa Bay.
As always, St. Pete Yacht Club hosted an outstanding event for 44 Lightnings Teams. We had three days of first-class racing, St. Paddy’s Day Themed Banquet & of course the famous Dave Starck Rum Party. Racing started on Sunday with perfect weather conditions for the first day of racing, which was a great way to knock any rust off and enjoy the Florida sunshine. Monday, the winds initially started out of the SW but slowly veered to a westerly direction throughout the day bringing bigger breeze and more challenging conditions including gusts reaching to mid-20s with puffy shifty westerly winds. Monday night two cold fronts moved through Tampa Bay and brought a strong cold northerly breeze with an opposing flood creating 3-4 seas, bringing conditions SSA members are accustomed to on the Chesapeake Bay. Tuesday morning brought a brief weather delay on shore to let the breeze drop to the class limits for the final race. AP was lowed at 11:00 and the final race started at 12:00 in big breeze and waves; but the breeze continued to subside into a great day of sailing keeping the competition close!
Congratulations to first place team: Danilu, Augie Diaz, Enrique Quintero & Paula Herman
Special Mention: Gary Hurban was the recipient of the Dr. Georges Peter Great Grand Master Trophy, awarded to the highest placing skipper over the age of 75 at the Winter Championship in St. Petersburg. This beautiful trophy is on display in the Yacht Club, the time you are at the St. Pete Yacht Club be sure to check it out!
SSA had a strong presence at the event with three SSA Lightning boats on the line:
15615, We Are Here, Bill Cabrall, John McGrane, LeAnn Myhre
15257, His, Gary & Joan Hurban, Peter Jadrowich
15126, As You Wish…, Lisa-Marie & Jim Lane, Pauli Kaiser
We also had 4 SSA members crewing for other teams:
15400, Kim Couranz, crewing with Bill Healy and Laura Jeffers
15466, Kim Studeman and Alister Thomson crewing for Phil Lange
15616, Jenn Millar, crewing with Debbie & Adam Probst
Check out the great photos from racing at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/TgM7g4aitRNevZcf/?mibextid=WC7FNe
Complete results can be seen here: https://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=16392
