International Lightning Boat-Grant Program

by International Lightning Class Association on 19 Nov 2008 The International Lightning Class Association (ILCA) is accepting applications for the third year of its innovative Boat Grant program, which puts race-ready Lightnings into the hands of sailors who might otherwise not have the opportunity. The deadline for the 2009 program is December 31, 2008.

Applications can be found at (http://www.lightningclass.org/Boat_Grant/about.htm). The ILCA class website also has blog reports and video from past years' grantees as well as additional information about the Lightning class.

The ILCA Boat-Grant program includes a Lightning with trailer, new sails, insurance, fee supplements, and support from an established Lightning sailing mentor. The program provides young sailors -- students or those just beginning their working careers, who can't afford to buy and campaign a competitive 3-person dinghy like the Lightning, with all they need to sail against some of the best racers in the world.

'I recommend the program to recent college grads or seniors who really want to sail but may not know how to get into a really good class,' said 2008 skipper Nick Farina of Boulder, Colorado. Justin Coplan, a student at Rochester Institute of Technology, agrees. 'It's a great opportunity to skipper the boat for a season,'

'At regattas, sailors would always be excited to see us and jump at the opportunity to lend us a hand, be it with rigging the boat, or making it go faster,' said 20-year-old Coplan, who won the ILCA Metropolitan Districts and the Last Blast regatta, and placed second at the North American President's Fleet over the summer of 2008 with a team of high school and collegiate sailors.

'All five Boat-Grant teams competed at the North Americans and the 70th Anniversary Regatta this summer,' reports Debbie Probst, who is the co-Chair of the Boat-Grant committee. 'And four went to the Atlantic Coast Championships. It's great to see a crowd of young sailors racing full-on with national and world champions at these events.'

The Boat-Grant program started in 2007, when Lightning Class volunteers Allan Terhune and Bill Fastiggi proposed a bold strategy for attracting and retaining young sailors to the class. Why not, they asked, give a young team of sailors a boat for a season? Fastiggi and Terhune were awarded U.S. Sailing's One-Design Leadership Award in 2007 for their efforts.

The program started modestly, with a single boat, but quickly grew to four boats in the first year. By the second year, the Lightning Class had five racing boats and a 'developmental' boat designated for local racing. Both Nickels Boat Works and Allen Boat Company provided the use of a new boat for the 2009 season, while two recent-vintage Lightnings were donated outright to the ILCA for use in the Boat Grant Program.

North Sails, Quantum Sails, Vermont Sailing Partners, and members of the class have all generously donated new sails and gear.

'Individual donations have been really amazing,' said class president Brian Hayes. 'Not just gear and parts, but dollars and hours of work. In 2008, we were able to establish a Colin Park Memorial boat as well as a Bruce Goldsmith Memorial Boat. It's kind of like the future of the class is connected directly to the Lightning's history.'

For 2009, the ILCA plans to continue the good work. John Faus, ILCA Treasurer, says that the program 'probably won't grow bigger here in North America, but we are hoping that the Class can provide the same level of mentoring, racing equipment, insurance, and of course boats, elsewhere in the world.'

Alumni skippers of the program include
2007:
Bob King of Syracuse, NY,
Bobby Martin of Riverton, NJ,
Guy Tawney of
Baltimore, MD
Stephen Waldie of Montreal, Canada

2008:
Dan Perkins of Niantic,
CT (Boston U),
Clinton Hayes of East Haddam, CT (U VT),
Nick Farina of Bolder, CO (U CO),
Justin Coplan of Rochester, NY (RIT) ,
Will Brown of Barnegat Light, NJ (Brown U).
Collin Kirby of Purcellville, VA (high school) was granted a development boat for the 2008 season.

The International Lightning, a 19-foot sloop designed by Sparkman & Stephens in 1938. Fleets can be found in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. Class alumni include Carl Eichenlaub, the 470 Olympic team of Amanda Clark and Sarah Mergenthaler, Bill Shore, Tito Gonzalez, U.S. Sailing Rolex Yachtswomen Jody (Swanson) Starck, Betsy Alison, and Bonnie Shore, Rolex Yachtsmen Ken Read, Dave Curtis, Dennis Conner, Jeff Linton, as well as ISAF Sailor of the Year Ed Baird -- many of whom got their start in the boat sailing with friends and family