2016 Lightning Atlantic Coast Championship at Carolina Yacht Club
by Bill Wiggins on 18 Jul 2016
2016 Lightning Atlantic Coast Championship at Carolina Yacht Club Bill Wiggins
This weekend the International Lightning Class held their Atlantic Coast Championship on waters off Wrightsville Beach, NC. Carolina Yacht Club hosted the event and certainly demonstrated true southern hospitality throughout the event in preparation of hoisting the 2017 North American Championship.
The event began with Greg Fisher (College of Charleston, Director of Sailing) and Brian Hayes (North Sails One Design) leading a clinic for the early arriving teams. These clinics, know to the class as Lightning Labs, are very intuitive seminars directed at performance in the Lightning.
This session began with a short shore session where Greg and Brian talked about a few nuances of sail trim and fine tune controls in breezy conditions. After this quick shore session, 12 boats hit the water for some practice races with Greg and Brian coaching and videotaping. Conditions were perfect to knock out four good races and a few practice starts. The clinic wrapped up late in the afternoon with an hour long video debrief about sail trim and boat handling.
Racing began Saturday AM with a SW breeze and a three-foot ocean swell. Three races were sailed with three different winners; Doug Wake, Ched Proctor and George Harrington. Other notables on the day were Greg Fisher, Peter Hogan and Eric Oetgen.
Sunday’s races began around 1130 after a quick postponement on the water. The breeze was light and from the SE with a very light ocean swell. Peter Hogan and Tommy Allen took the bullets in the two remaining races. Other notables were Gordon Wolcott (Boat Grant Recipient), Carter Cameron and Bill Mauk.
The real story behind this event is the overall winner with 5, 3, 10, 2, 6 for finishes. Gordon Wolcott from Virginia Beach with his crew Elizabeth “Lizzie” Chambers from Mooresville, NC and Chris Stessing from Buffalo, NY sailed to very consistent finishes throughout the event to take tie with Greg Fisher (with his wife JoAnn and daughter Martha) and win the tiebreaker.
This team is one of the 2016 Boat Grant Teams. This is only the second event that they have sailed in a Lightning and the first major event in the class. This win certainly sends a statement that our Boat Grant Program* is working and we are finding great sailors. Congratulations to Gordon, Lizzie and Chris on the win!
Interview by Greg Fisher
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