2023 Lightning Class Womens Juniors Masters
The Lightning Class held the WJM’s this year hosted by the Metedeconk River Yacht Club on Barnegat Bay New Jersey and it was a fantastic event.
Results: https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=16057
Incredible photos of the event can be seen on Art Petrosemolo’s Nautical Photography website: https://nauticalphotography.smugmug.com/Sailing-Regattas/Lightning-Class/2023-Lightning-Class/LIghtning-WJM
While this year the event was smaller than usual, only 41 competitor's, there were still a lot of talented teams in the parking lot!
If you have never sailed out of Metedeconk River YC it is a very cool experience and you should definitely add this club to your regatta list. Getting to the race course is an interesting experience…Boats need to be in the water by 9:30-10:00 to be brought by ribs to the waiting tow boats. The MRYC runs a well-organized regatta and had all teams on the water, tied up to various volunteer tow boats and slowly brought to the sailing area. There is a hour tow from the YC on Metedeconk River under the Mantoloking Bridge to the wider Barnegat Bay racing area.
We had four days on on the water: a practice day followed by three days of racing, with excellent competition and great breeze! SSA was nicely represented both the Women’s (much smaller than normal, but very competitive), 4th place “As You Wish…,” Lisa-Marie Lane / Pauline Kaiser / Arin Kaye and Master’s Division (made up of mostly Blue Fleet teams!) finishing in 8th: “Golden Moment,” Gregory Florian / Colin Florian / Bryan Burke; 17th: “Berry 111,” Ed Roseberry Jr. / Jennifer Millar / Kathryn Moloney and 24th: “Irie,” Jim Lane / Joe Buczkowski / Leann Myhre.
The weather was a bit over cast but we had excellent racing conditions. Racing order changed it up this year and started with Masters, who usually are last, followed by Juniors then Womens. As always being a competitive class, after 2 general recalls the Masters went directly to the U Flag for all future starts. Then Juniors followed suit with their own general recall/U flag and ended up being bumped to after the Womens start.
Day one held nice breeze for for three races for the Women’s and Juniors, two for the Masters. Day two had increased breeze as the day progressed racing starting in the mid-to high teens, gusts in the mid 20’s! The Juniors teams being much younger, having more energy and less bumps & bruises had their three races while the Women’s teams made the group decision to follow the Master’s and call it a day after the 2nd race… Day three started with nice breeze with anticipated stronger wind as the day progressed, but after the first race the wind died down some and it was nice racing with shifty breeze in the 8-12 k range for the final two races for Masters, and final three races for Women’s and Juniors.
JUNIOR SAILERS…If you have not sailed a Lightning you need to check out the Lightning Class for some great opportunities of first class racing! Check out the incredible athletic photos of the junior teams. Just ask any Lightning on the lot who would be happy get you on a Lightning!
