Dane Pedersen and team ran the races. The Albacores were at Rock Hall for their nationals. I was in western Maryland where it was warm and the wind was blowing away tents at the Farmer’s market. On the river, I’m guessing it was a warm day with good wind.
Category Archives: Lightnings
2024 Fall Series #2 Sept 15
Nabeel Alsalam, Mark Rickling, Natalie Rehberger, and Jon ran the races. (Lindsay Bach got a pass when RC decided to take only one boat out due to lack of motor peeing.) The wind was east-northeast which is a challenge on the river. So they set up the windward mark at the mouth of the Anacostia and a gybe mark half the distance to Roaches run. The wind took big shifts left and right.
Nevertheless, it was a great day to be on the water and the sailors got five O-2 races (triangle, windward-leeward). The Lightnings had a hard carrying their spinnaker on the reaching legs depending on the phase of the wind but the Albacores got in some reaching fun.
2024 Fall Series #1 – Sept 8
Mike Heinsdorf, Dave Huber, Tim Dickson, and John Van Voorhis ran the races.
11 Albacores, 1 Buccaneer, 3 I-20s, 2 Lasers, and 4 Lightnings competed. All 5 fleets were able to compete in the first 3 races, after we started the 4th race for the Albacores the wind died so we opted to send the rest of the fleets home. The early high winds were a bit too much for the I-20s.
The first 2 races were W2, the last 2 races were W1.
DISC Three Bridges Fiasco on Saturday, July 13!
Greetings all,
We’ve got 5 dinghies registered for the DISC 3 Bridges Fiasco race this Saturday. Who else is interested? If you need crew, or are looking to crew, don’t forget about the “Crew Connection” (link on our PRSA Homepage). Fleet Captains: please forward this reminder to your Fleet listservs. This is a really fun race and the weather forecast for Saturday looks promising.
The NOR and the registration link are both posted at https://discsailing.org/ (scroll down a bit to the “Upcoming Events/Registration” area. The SIs will be posted soon.
I’m also including here some informaton from DISC Commodore PEte Fanta, who will also run the RC on Saturday. From Pete:
- “I will be the RC for the Three Bridges this weekend. The RC boat will be the Georgetown Sailing Team Boat. My intention is to follow in the powerboat, as best as possible, the majority of boats around the course to render assistance as needed.
- The start times will be set using Portsmouth Handicaps on a Pursuit Race. This means the slowest boat will start first and can sail the course designated in either direction, as long as they round the correct marks. The fastest boat will start last. When we do this with only the PHRF boats, there can be as much as a 15 minute gap between first starter and last starter. The boat finishing first across the line after sailing the course…wins. The appropriate ratings are taken into account by the start times. This method allows us to sail a Laser against an Albacore, against a Flying Scot, against an S2 7.9. I understand that in some conditions certain boats are hard to beat, but that is the nature of handicap racing.
- SIs will be posted soon.”
I hope to see you out on the water on Saturday!
Cheers,
Aaron
2024 Lightning Dixie District Championships & 38th Annual Potomac Cup Regatta
This double-header regatta was held at Leesylvania State Park on June 29 and 30 where the Potomac is 2.5 miles wide!
Six races were scheduled and completed in solid 10-15 mph breezes. Well, it went light in one race which challenged the sailors as the boats had to choose the best VMG angles downwind.
Trevor Prior and team from the Susquehanna Yacht Club won. PRSA’s own Aaron Boesenecker with Rick Welch and Lisbet Kugler were second. Joe Buczkowski and team were third.
PRO Nelson Pemberton, mark boat captain, Barney Harris, and team set up the courses and ran the races. Dan Trammel, our judge, ran a redress hearing and provided anyone who asked with help interpreting the rules, Thank you!
Red Fehrle and Suzanne Humphrey prepared a steak and salmon dinner for us while we were out racing. Lindsay Bach, Sheila Campbell, Maryann Gallagher, Christy Chen and many others brought sides to complement the main course. Frank Gallagher and Pam Maple brought breakfast to get the sailors going.
Jim Dillard was one of the forces behind the creation of Leesylvania State Park back in the 1970s. And he made sure it was sailboat friendly with two cranes for launching out boats. It is now the home of a sailing school. Jim was there competing at age 90 in the latest of his series of green Lightnings with his son-in-law Justin and daughter Christy as crew.
Yuengling was again the sponsor of our regatta and we appreciate that continued support.
Results:
2024 Lightning Dixie District Championship
And the 38th Annual Doc Gilbert Memorial Potomac Cup Regatta is being held on June 29 and 30 at Leesylvania State Park about 20 miles south of the Washington Sailing Marina on the Potomac River. There the Potomac is 2.5 miles wide.
Before 9 am the park had reached capacity and State Police were preventing more people from entering. Fortunately, our sailors and volunteers had special status and were being admitted.
Nelson Pemberton (PRO) and Barney Harris (course setter) are running the races with help of Albacore sailors and spouses of Lightning sailors.
Day 1 was warm though the beautiful southerly breeze disguised that warmth.
Day 1 results below:
2024 PRSA Spring Series #7, #8, and Whole Series
Dane Pederson and team ran Spring Series #7.
John Van Voorhis and team ran Spring Series #8. A front came through and we had a westerly with strong gust from the northwest and a strong current running out. A line of thunderstorms caused the RC to send us home after two races. The storms broke up but its better to be safe rather than sorry.
Key Rules for Scoring the Series:
- For the series total, I asked the program to exclude each sailor’s worst 50% of races — if there were 13 races, 6 were excluded.
- If you registered on shore but did not start a race you should get the number of finishers + 2.
- If you started a race but did not finish you should get the number of finishers + 1.
- If you did not sign up on shore and did not race, you get the number registered in the series + 1.
Spring Series #7 (June 2)
Spring Series #8 (June 9)
Spring Series Total
Spring Series Total (Fixed)
(DNS = Number came + 2, DNF = number came + 1)
2024 Spring Series #5 (Mother’s Day)
Eva Hogan and team ran the races. The winds came in earlier and stronger than forecast. Plus, the big puffs came in from the right — not good when you are flying a spinnaker. Frank capsized on such a shift and puff.
Upcoming Lightning Regattas
Lightning Dixie District Championship and 43rd Annual Doc Gilbert Memorial Potomac Cup on June 29 and 30 at Leesylvania State Park. Skippers register here, or volunteer to crew, and volunteer for a shore task. Thank you.
Only 2 PRSA spring series Sundays left before the SSA No Gas Regatta or the PRSA Spring Regatta, both on MAY 25-26.
It looks like several PRSA skippers will be going to the SSA No-Gas Regatta, To go to this regatta, Go to https://www.lightningclass.org/
To see regatta details and links to the Regatta sign-up pages.
If you’re not going to SSA, you can still sign up for the PRSA Spring Regatta at… https://www.nextsailor.com/app/page/regatta/672
Or sign up to help on race committee for this regatta.
Still time to get in some good practice before these regattas so plan to do one or two Sunday races on the Potomac!
Also….
The Lightning Dixie District Championship and the Doc-Gilbert Potomac Cup will be combined and run simultaneously on June 29–30, at Leesylvania State Park. This combo Regatta satisfies Fleet 50’s requirement to run the Dixie District championship every five years or so. Plan to be there.!!!! Go to https://www.lightningclass.org/
to see regatta details and links to the Regatta sign-up pages.
Call or text me if you have any questions or need help getting to one of these regattas.
Thanks,
Frank Gallagher
Captain – Lightning Fleet 50
703-599-0144
frankjgallagher@gmail.com
PRSA Spring Regatta May 25-26
Registration is open for the PRSA Spring Regatta! Sign up now and help us spread the word about our signature spring event: https://www.nextsailor.com/app/page/regatta/672.
If you are interested in volunteering to help out with some regatta organization, please let Regatta Chair Kaitlyn Lucey know. This is a great chance to get involved with one of our events, learn more about regatta organization and operation, and help out PRSA!