Tag Archives: Lightning Class

Fall Series #2 09/27/2009 Scores

What a beautiful day it turned out to be last Sunday, although as my crew will tell you “I hate Westy’s!” 🙂  The RC set up a long (or maybe I should say wide) Triangle course that made it a real tactical choice for the Lightnings on whether to try and carry the kite on the very tight reach legs. It also made for some interesting reach-to-reach jibes at the jibe mark. As usual when we get a westy (Did I mention I hate Westy’s!) crew work was at a premium. Frank Gallagher was very consistant in winning the day for the Lightnings, while Steve Parsons took the honors for the Albacores. On a side note, it was great to see Khin & Thant on their beautiful new Albacore fresh in from England. Click the “Read More” to see the scores:

Continue reading Fall Series #2 09/27/2009 Scores

Fall Series #1 09/20/2009 Scores

What a great day on the water Sunday. 9 Lightnings, 8 Albacores, 1 Hobie, and 1 Laser came out to play on a beautiful sunny afternoon. We decided to sail the lower course because the breeze was looking pretty iffy at the Skippers meeting. As it turned out, we could easily have gone up to the upper course as we had nice 5-7 kt breezes that started out of the SE and slowly shifted around to SSW. The RC headed up by Jeff Storck got 4 races in before it got too shallow to continue and calling it a day. Congratulations to the days’ winners – Albacore Skipper Daphne Byron, and Lightning Skipper Rick Welch. Follow the “Read More” link to see the scores:

Continue reading Fall Series #1 09/20/2009 Scores

Thoughts from Lightning Class Presidents Cup Winner – Frank Gallagher

Want to know how Frank and his team did it? Read on:

We went out the two previous wed night sailings and got in some good practice…especially mark rounding’s with spin up/down..(windward and leeward)…lots of spin jibing…we found ourselves not doing well jibing on deck…so after lots of failed attempts with inside the boat jibes, we finally developed a process that worked well for us… Crew rotation practice…..both Brenna and Mladen do foredeck or middle, so when something goes wrong during the race, both are aware of what’s wrong and how to fix it…(Brenna made a great save when our spin sheet went under the boat during one take down….could have been a catastrophic foul-up…..!!!) We cleaned the boat real well sat morning…got out a little early and got a little practice in…. As for the race itself…nothing too special…we were lucky…but prepared and ready to take advantage of all opportunities on the course We checked the line before the starts…decided where we wanted to start and got mostly good starts and just work our way upwind. There were lots of shifts to play and that helped us catch up several times…..Mladen is foredeck and always looking forward for windshifts, pressure and what other boats are doing…Brenna is middle and looking around beside and behind us for other boats, there angles and speed…

We live by 3 rules in this order……

1…always drive the fastest path to the next mark…(be on the favored tack..)find pressure

2….always trim all sails for max speed….lots of gear changing..ease in light stuff…trim as pressure builds..centerline boom…constantly adjust the spin…always on the edge of a luff….

3….boat balance…fair amount of heal in real light stuff…dead flat in the heavy stuff….anticipate…don’t react…lots of heal to round the leeward mark in light to medium…
And oh yeah….avoid conflict..no boat banging..or killer mistakes like OCS or protests…

And above all we have fun as a team.

Frank

2009 President’s/Leukemia Cup Regatta Notice Of Race

      The 2009 Presidents & Leukemia Cup is coming up very soon, on September 12/13, 2009. See below for the NOR for the event. To Register for the PRESIDENTS CUP (all One Design Racers must enter the Presidents Cup)  go here for the PRSA online registration form.   See who is coming. Please note that to enter the LEUKEMIA CUP you may go here to register, and you must register for the President’s Cup. Its easy just raise a minimum of $100.00 to enter. Of course we are all raising lots of money for this years Leukemia Cup event in the name of one of our own who is fighting the disease right now. 

 Here is the NOR: 

Continue reading 2009 President’s/Leukemia Cup Regatta Notice Of Race

New Lightning Video – Human Behavior

A tongue in cheek look at the Lightning Fleet as they try their level best to sail in some pretty trying conditions…