"The Ultimate One Design Sailboat"
Sean Fidler - USA
14969
The Lightning combines a perfect balance of sail / tuning adjustments with boat / crew size. At
only 700 lbs., Lightning's are light enough to trailer and launch easily. They are also small
enough to be sailed easily with 3 people. A
Lightning planes downwind in moderate breeze,
yet it is very solid feeling & controllable upwind.
Lightning's can handle a wide range of sailing
conditions well. They have the feel of a larger
boat upwind, and a smaller boat downwind with
an enormous spinnaker (300 sq./ft.).
The Lightning class is, consistently and by far, the largest multi-crew one design in the world in
terms of number of fleets, active class members, and regatta
participation. Lightning's are extremely technical & tactical to race due
to a hard-chine hull and advanced sail plan. The Lightning class is, very
arguably, the strongest level of competition in all of one design racing.
This combination of comfortable size, depth of talent, and a technically
challenging design has generated the premier one design racing
platform in the World. If you haven't already, check one out!
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Why the
Lightning?
Allan Terhune
In the fall of 2001, I started working in Connecticut and my
fiancé (now wife) and I were looking to get a new boat that would
be practical for both sailing in Connecticut and New Jersey. We had
spent a long time sailing in the Flying Scot class and we decided that
we wanted to travel to more regattas and meet some new people and
challenges. After talking
with Greg Fisher and Brian Hayes (along with their arm twisting), we
decided that the Lightning would be a great fit for us, and with the
Pan Am Trials and Worlds coming up, there would be plenty of great
competition. This was going to be the first time back in a Lightning
since my Junior days, and I was really looking forward to it.
My first bit of traveling was to Orlando, Florida to meet Fisk
Hayden to pick up our first boat #13970.
He was very enthusiastic and helpful, and I had a sense right
then that we were going to meet some great people and have a ton of
fun with this boat. I had no idea when I went to Florida to pick it up
what I was getting, but when I got there I knew that I had just got a
great boat and couldn’t wait to get sailing on it.
Our first two regattas were at my all time favorite place,
Monmouth Boat Club. My
dad had told me that the Long John was the best regatta, and that he
loved it when he sailed Lightnings, a long time ago. We had the best time there, we met so many people and
everyone was so willing to help. The sailing there is so great. I know some people hate the huge
shifts, the huge holes, and how if someone opens their garage door on
the shore side a puff comes onto the course, but it is great.
Everyone made us fit in right from the beginning. MBC did a
great job with hospitality and the regatta was run to perfection. It
was the perfect mix of social and sailing, and it really kicked us off
right for the Lightning.
After this we went to Surf City to participate in a Lightning
Lab with Greg Fisher. This is one of the best things that the
Lightning Class has going for it and people should really take
advantage of these. I learned so much from having Greg and Jack both
go over boat set up and on the water instruction for the things that
really helped to jump start our speed in the boat. This was where it became apparent to me that the Lightning
class wanted to get better as sailors and that everyone pushed and
helped each other, and it was great.
We went to regatta at Cedar Point then had to take a few weeks
off as Katie and I were getting married, and at the same time I came
down with Mono, so I was sick for about a month and unable to sail.
We sailed our districts at Cedar Point, which was great, and
planned to go to North Cape for the North American’s.
At the districts it became apparent to me really fast about how
important straight-line speed was in open water.
We learned a lot from Ched, Bill Healy, and Jim Crane about
boat speed and it helped raise our game another notch before the
NA’s.
North Cape hosted a great regatta. It was the perfect venue.
There was plenty of boat storage and getting the boats in and out was
a breeze. Right from the beginning, we could tell that the regatta was
super organized and it made it great for all of us. If there had been
no bugs, it would have been the best place I’d ever sailed.
We were so fortunate to have met so many people I have only
heard about and really got to learn a lot about sailing our boat. I learned so much from this regatta by sailing with so many
great people and by meeting so many of the Lightning superstars.
We were fortunate enough to win the Thermis Trophy for the
first time participant in the Blue Fleet and were really excited at
the possibility of sailing in the Pan Am Trials and in the Worlds in
Miami.
After the North Americans, we decided with the Pan Am Trials
and Worlds up coming, that we wanted a newer boat for ourselves. With
the help of Tom Allen, he hooked us up with a great used boat that we
have now #14924. We spent a lot of time on this boat before the Pan Am
Trials and we really think it helped us a lot.
Before the Trials we sailed in Surf City at the Manahawkin Bay
Cup. Jack Elfman and crew
set up one of the best all around one day regattas I have ever been
to. The sailing venue was awesome, there was great breeze and the
hospitality was super. Surf City gave us great food and racing and it
was a great time. There
were so many people there enjoying one of the last regattas of the
year and it was a blast.
The Pan Am Trials was one of the most educational regattas I
have ever sailed. I have never sailed in a 13-boat fleet that was so
good before. Everyone was so fast and so good that if you made one
mistake, you were out of it. Metedeconk and Jim Carson’s team put on
a great show, and it was a regatta that the Lightning Class should be
proud of.
Looking back on this past year, we really enjoyed the lightning
and the benefit of being able to get off "the home lake.”
It was so great to meet all the new people and to go to all the
new venues that I have never been to before. I learned more this year
sailing than I have in a long time. The Lightning class has something
really special going on at every regatta and I would encourage
everyone to make it a point to get to as many regattas as possible,
and it keep up the tradition of making new people feel as welcome as I
felt when we started off. I
was amazed by how all of the talented people are so willing to share
what they know and to help make the class better. This is what really
makes the class keep going on strong and will keep it that way for
many generations.
Note:
I won the Sears Cup in 1995 At Chicago Yacht Club My
crew was Courey Yetman and Ron Vignone. Jack Elfman lent me his
old boat #14139 for the BBYRA series to sail against Ryan Dunn at MCYC.
I believe the Area C that year was at Monmouth BC and it was in
Lightnings also. I remember sailing in Sandy's boat and Bill Clausen's
and Merganthaler's at the regatta. Learned a lot from you guys there.
Allan K. Terhune Jr.
Cedar
Point, CT and Toms River, NJ
- Why the
Lightning?
By Cully Cobb (Lightning owner
since 1953)
To a man, of course, we partisans must
answer, "why on earth not the" Lightning?"
isn't it the world's finest sailboat with the biggest,
most" prosperous class organization and the most
sterling Corinthians among its members? Sure, but let's
forgo the sales pitch for a moment and see what an
objective look at our self reveals.
The class is now twenty-six years old*
and some of us recall that it has been under attack by
competing classes for every one of these years. Not just
by the owners and sailors in other classes but by
commercial classes and their builder-advocates who have
hammered away in the advertising pages of the yachting
journals for all these years with almost no published
rebuttal. Yet the Lightning has gone on making steady
progress. How can anything be so great? Lets look at the positives and the negatives.
The boat was designed by the
unquestioned genius of our generation, Olin Stephens,
with no special goal except to provide an all-purpose
racing knockabout blending comfort, speed, ease of
construction for the amateur, economy, and a size large
enough to give the feel of a small yacht, not too big for
easy trailering. This is what the boat was in 1939 and,
after decades of furious debate, friendships made and
broken over issues major and infinitesimal, this is what
it is today. It is not the fastest small boat or the
cheapest. But is there even now a better? Is there
another boat of its size, displacement, and sail area
that can beat it? Is there even a boat near its size
sporting such things as a deck, seats, floorboards that
can? Look at the challengers and you will find boats that
scoop water when they heel, boats that have slippery
slanted wet bottoms and no elevated floorboards, boats without seats, boats with no skeg which weave and wallow
under tow, boats so lightly built that they come apart
after a season or two of hard use, boats which quickly
turn turtle, or worse yet, sink when they capsize. Or in
the other direction you will find boats that are stiff
and safe but painfully sluggish or poorly balanced and
insensitive.
It was indeed a good design. By intent,
and yet somewhat fortuitously to judge from the reported
misgivings at Sparkman and Stephens when they realized
the success of their brainchild after it had been turned
over, no strings, to the class organization.
The boat is a normal sailor with no bad
characteristics. It has perfect balance, an easy entry,
and a clean run. It does not drag the transom if an extra
passenger or two come aboard. It does not submarine
before the wind or broach in a gibe. It rounds up in a
puff, carries its sails in a blow, yet slips along easily
in a calm. Your hand is not glued to the tiller for fear
of an instant luff. It is rigged and operated much the
same as larger boats and is widely known as a crew
trainer. But there is more to the boat than its sailing
characteristics. Its size and stability tend to bring
more and more people into the class.
Success in racing is not confined to
the very young, very strong, very heavy or to the very
rich. Being nobody's monopoly, the Lightning has always
been popular among the keenest of the boatbuilders and
sailmakers. These are the so-called professionals who in
fact differ from the rest of us only in being blithe
spirits who refuse to take up an occupation but try to
make a living from their hobby! They are sharp, charming,
tough on the race course, quick with a helping hand and
slow to protest! You cannot beat them often but what a
thrill when you do! A class without them must be dull
indeed. The presence of these plus an ever growing pride
of man eating amateurs has made the racing marvelously
competitive. Among our contenders are established
champions from most of the other classes. That they come
or return to the Lightning wars proves their love of fair
racing. No doubt there are still other class champions
too timorous to switch! There have been some whose
expertise, so apparent in lesser classes, left them in
midfleet in the Lightnings. This can wound the tender ego
and sometimes lead to carping and nit-picking.
What does the future hold for the
Lightning? Are we about to be out-designed or out-dated?
Should we switch from this most catholic yacht to a more Olympian perhaps? It is well to recall that racing
machines and specialized craft are nothing new. Of note
was the smashing success of the ancient International
Decked Canoe in the recent trials for a new Olympic
monotype over the best and most radical of the newest
super-dinghies. The Lightning never has been all things
to all men. But is there anything in view to suggest it
will not continue to mean more things to more men, women,
boys, girls, and the occasional ship's cat or dog?
================
Reflections from a Lightning Virgin
Was it going to be pain or pleasure? If you're contemplating joining
this class, you might wonder, too. I did, when I bought a good, used
Lightning about a year ago.
In a class with hundreds of sailors with decades of experience, my
first season has been a pleasant revelation. It was just as tough, fair and
fun as I'd hoped.
Club competition was full of support and laughter, and nary a protest
that I recall. Top level NAs competition was similar, plus a more
squinty-eyed focus. Yet even there, protests were rare.
Sparkman & Stephens certainly got it right with the design and the
class setup, because here's a classic, durable boat which provides a very
level playing field for crews of varied weights. At the 2001 NAs, there were
wins by 430# crew combos, and 530# ones; new boats and older ones. It
became
clear to me that good racing judgment and an understanding of how to
tune
one's boat for varying conditions, were the real keys to victory; not
crew
weight, boat vintage, or cubic money.
The 700 # minimum weight boats could be built lighter, but to do so
would
compromise both durability and resale value. And when racing, the
occasional
thump & bump WILL happen. Don't ask me how I know...
The rigs are very adjustable, accommodating wide wind strengths. Setup
time when trailering is less than 20 minutes (although some
"vets" seem to do it in half that.)
In our first season, we experienced winds from drifters up to 35kts.
We practiced & improved our roll tacks and jibes. Although we didn't
exactly set forth to practice it, we were delighted to find out that the boat
is easily righted when broached.
While it can be sailed recreationally with just the main up (with the
centerboard partly up to neatly balance), it can also be swiftly
planed,
hiking in clouds of spray with the big spinnaker. It even looks good.
Who
could ask for more?
"You only get one time to make a first impression." For me,
Lightnings and
the ILCA made a great one!
Bill Dutcher
#14958
Scallywag
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