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Lightning 2003 News Sail Information || Lightning News || FAQs || Tuning Guide || Contact Lightning Experts || Order
Report by Brian Hayes Four major Lightning North American Championships were held between Aug. 12-22. The Women's, Masters and Junior Championships were held at the Niantic Bay Yacht Club on Aug. 12-15 while the "Open" North American Championships were held Aug. 16-22 at Cedar Point Yacht Club. Each of these 4 events as well as the consolation series were won by all-amateur teams using North Sails. In the Juniors Wade Schon and his team from New Jersey won 4 of the
7 races to best Ben Spiller and his team from Wisconsin by 1 point.
Ben won the other 3 races of the series as these two teams dominated
the rest of the 14 boat fleet to secure 2 of the 3 US spots for the
Junior Worlds in South America next year. Securing a berth as well
was Megaen Ruhlman and her all-girl crew. These teams used all-North
Sails inventories. In the Womens event Theresa Colantuano dominated the 6 race series
with 5 bullets to best 3 other teams. Theresa, who was to represent
the US as crew on the PanAm Lightning Team until a late decision to
withdraw the boat from the games, used all North sails. In the Masters event Colin Park and his team from Florida won the
6th and final race to overtake Dick Hallagan and his all-family team
to secure the Masters title by 3 points. Colin used North Sails main
and jib while Dick used an all-North sail plan. At Cedar Point another all-family team won their fist North American
Title. Allan Terhune Jr., with his wife Katie and sister Kristen
sailed a brilliant series in very tricky Long Island Sound conditions
to best defending champion Bill Healy by 10 points. Allan series
of 4,(18),1,1,2,4 was almost unbelieveable considering the conditions
and competition. Only Healy was able to match Terhunes consistency
by also counting all top 10 finishes while the rest of the 34 boat
fleet suffered through at least 2 or 3 finishes in the 20's or higher. In the Presidents Cup Division the family theme held true again as
Jamie Brickell, with his wife Susie and daughter Kimberley, dominated
the consolation serieswithe finishes of 1,3,2,4,2,(5). The Brickells
had wrapped up the Championship before the last race was sailed and
still competed on Friday with a solid top 5 finish. The runner-up team
was also a family affair as Dave Helmick and his son Davy and daughter
Paige held on to their 2nd place standing.
Report by Skip Dieball North Cape Yacht Club
L
A relatively small fleet turned out this year for the 2003 Great Lakes Championship at North Cape (site of the ’02 North Americans). The size of the fleet was flushed by the talent that showed with many of the top sailors in the class in attendance. Big breeze powered the fleet around the course for two windward/leeward races on Saturday. Skip Dieball with crew Chris Snyder and Laurie Dieball managed a 2,1 while a three-way tie for 2nd (6 pts.) between David Starck’s with crew Tom Starck and Billy Healy, Sean Fidler’s with crew David Tunnicliffe and Mike Thomas, and Jim Allen’s team with John Morley and Jane Allen. The shoot out for Sunday was not to be as Saturday’s 15-20 knot winds made way for 20-25 knot winds. Coupled with cold water temps, the committee hedged on the safety side of decision making & called Sunday’s racing. Just like with Pymatuning, a one day series was completed.
May 10-11, Jamestown, PA
Thirty-Five Lightnings attended this year’s Spring Classic. As custom with all regattas at PYC, the volunteers did a superb job with everything from Race Committee work to the entire Social Schedule. With a strong spring storm system ripping through the Midwest, the Race Committee decided to pile as many races they could in on Saturday. This strategy proved to be key as there was no racing on Sunday due to extremely heavy winds. After 5 races, the team of Skip Dieball, Matt Frymier and Laurie Dieball won a tiebreak over Bill Faude, Ernie Dieball and Make Stark. Races were competitive and very close. In fact, of the five races, these two teams battled to the finish in three with Skip’s team “shooting” the line 2/3 of those races over Bill’s team.
For more information or questions about our Lightning program contact one of our Lightning experts..
Report by Brian Hayes The Lightning World Championship and International Masters were held in Miami on April 9-18. Co-hosting both events were the Coral Reef and Biscayne Bay Yacht Clubs. 32 competitors participated in the Masters portion of the event held from April 9-11. Jim Crane with his crew Kip Hamblet and Larry Bone won the event over Bill Mauk with his team of John Humphrey and Claus Engel. Jack Elfamn (3rd), Colin Park (4th) and Fay Regan (5th) rounded out the top 5. Wind was plentiful for this event and there were many capsizes and 1 lost day of racing due to wind in the 30+ knot range. North Sails were used by the top 13 Masters, including Jim and Bill. The World Championships started on April 13 with 60 competitors from
11
countries. Tito Gozalez with his team of Jay Lutz (NS Texas) and Claus
Engel sailed a very consistent event and held off Steve Hayden with
Barr In the Worlds 55 of the 60 competitors used at least 1 North Sail in their inventory and the top 17 used North mains and jibs while 16 of the top 17 used North spinnakers. Results and more details can be found at: www.lightningworlds.org For more information or questions about the North Sails OD Lightning program contact one of our class experts..
Report by Brian Hayes The 2003 Lightning Southern Circuit was held at 3 different venues
from March 8-16..
North results: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,11*,12*
North Results: 2,3,4,5,6,7*,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18
North results: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9
Full results, stories and photos can be found at: www.lightningclass.org
For more information on Lightning sails, contact the North Lightning experts.
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15169 Sean, David, Mike (6 pts.)
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