Two weekends ago, we attended the first annual Under 30 Lightning Regatta. After seeing the success of a junior lightning regatta at Buffalo Canoe Club this summer, Elaine Parshall decided to bring the idea back to the southeast. We were greeted with gusty conditions on Saturday morning with a consistent breeze of 7-10kts gusting up to around 15. The breeze built throughout the day up to a consistent 10-12kts for the last races. The event felt very much like a “college regatta”: short races, a college starting sequence, and a simple windward leeward course.
Wheeler (skipper):
Hannah and Darby couldn’t make this one, so I was skippering the boat with 2 Georgia Tech students (Robert Beauchamp and Caroline Speir) as my crew. I was a bit nervous having two completely new crew on board. Thankfully, Robert is a long-time Thistle sailor so he was more than comfortable flying the spin. Caroline and I had practiced some that week setting the pole on a 420 in pretty light conditions.
During the first couple of races, I was just trying to figure out how to drive the boat in heavy wind while directing my new crew at the same time. I gave Robert the responsibility of cranking on the backstay and traveling down in puffs. I was able to explain to Caroline some how to adjust the wire and jib cloth in heavy wind conditions. Even with that though, I still felt like we were constantly overpowered by the puffs. By race 3 or 4 though, we were communicating pretty well and adjusting controls more frequently.
Downwinds were interesting to say the least. The first few times, we had issues getting our spinnaker up. At some points, it wasn’t even worth it to fly because the courses were so short. Sometimes we found that not attempting to put it up was to our advantage as we saw many teams struggling to get theirs flying. During the 3rd race, we caught a puff on the downwind that ripped the figure 8 we’d tied straight through the grommet on the head of our spinnaker (I’m ALWAYS trying bowlines from now on). We finished the race without a spinnaker and sailed over to race committee after to get assistance retrieving our skied spin halyard.
Overall, I am pretty happy with our performance. We finished 2nd out of 6 boats - not bad for a new skipper and brand new crew. Big thanks to Elaine Parshall, PRO Ryan Hamm, and all of the CSC volunteers for putting on this event!
Robert (middle):
This regatta was a ton of fun for me, and being my first time sailing a Lightning made it even more entertaining. Wheeler helped me out with the general tips for adjusting the traveler and backstay, and the rest I got to learn as we raced. It was very much a different experience from Thistles where there isn’t a backstay and if you are overpowered and have already exhausted the standard outhaul, cunningham and vang options the answer is just hike harder. Downwind was tricky, as during the first few races I was trying to sort out our issues getting the spin to hoist properly & un twisted, while dealing with the shifty conditions. Once we worked out those kinks things got much smoother, and I also got better at flying the spin by feel alone (I was really missing the Thistle’s mast-head fly all weekend). Overall the boat was an absolute blast to sail and I am confident that if that was anything but Caroline & my first time in it, we would have come home in 1st.
Caroline (forward):
Having grown up on Lake Murray and only crewed in a 420, I couldn’t resist to jump at the opportunity to sail a Lightning in the Under 30 Lightning Regatta. Being the least experienced sailor on board, it was definitely a learning experience but it is one I won’t forget. The time in a boat setting the pole and raising or lowering both the jib and spinnaker is invaluable. I was super thankful to have Wheeler and Robert patiently teaching me everything I needed to know. I am super thankful to have had this experience in a developmental-like regatta. It has piqued my interests going forward and I am eager to have more opportunities to sail outside of collegiate regattas.
