LIGHTNINGS IN THE ORANGE BOWL

What? You missed it?  How? You must have been shoveling snow or scraping ice, I guess. For the first time the Lightnings were invited to sail in the annual Orange Bowl Regatta. And we had a great turnout with an excellent international fleet of sailors. Coconut Grove Sailing Club hosted the event with six races over 3 days and great conditions even after the poor weather forecasts. Cool temps for us floridians, 60s brrr, but mostly sunny skies with the usual 8-20+ kts of breeze. Is it still snowing up north?? What were you thinking?

The international fleet consisted of teams from Chile, Argentina, Finland, USA, and Miami. Everyone has promised to bring back another team with them to next year’s regatta, so get your boat and housing reservations in early. Local Fleet 226 is working on boat storage and regattas for you to attend throughout the winter months. So next year you can make the trip down for the regatta and leave the boat for the winter months (more room in the garage for the snow blower). Then fly down for some of the winter weekend regattas in Jan. and Feb. before the Circuit.

This year’s regatta was as competitive as any I sailed this year. Four boats finished within 2 points of each other. Great battles on every leg of every race. Only Argentina won more than 1 race. Seems like Jeff Linton and I were within a couple boatlengths of each other all day every day. It was great to have the northerners like Paul Wurtzebach (windy city) and Jack Elfman (windy Jersey) show everyone how to roll upwind in the wind. It was awesome racing! It was typical racing on Biscayne Bay. The competition was great. "It’s never over until it’s over" was the perfect motto. I know its Florida but no hanging chads here. The recounts were done on the sail in. It was good stuff. Tito is already making plans for next year to bring his own boat which will include his all-star crew, so watch out. The Florida District is going to turn this into a large annual event and we want everyone to be a part of it. It is also a GREAT chance to show off the Lightning to all the youth sailors attending. The Orange Bowl regatta has always been a youth and small boat regatta. With three courses set we only had to share our course with one Laser division and the Europe division. The Lightning definitely got noticed by a lot of people, kids and their parents.

I want to thank CGSC and the volunteer committees for their hard work. Also, thanks to the local fleet members for putting on the Friday night dinner and party. Fay Regan and her usual cohorts did great getting people in boats and in houses. I’m very happy to have my wife, Angie sail again and do so well. Couldn’t have done without a great effort, as always, from our buddy Barr Batzer. I must also thank my on-shore support team of Ahma and Ahpa Hayden, and Suzy S. who all watched Jeffrey so mommy could sail again. Thanks to all the competitors for attending the regatta you all deserve congratulations. Be there again next year!