Larry MacDonald leads Lightning Winter Championship

St. Petersburg, FL (March 15, 2015) – The 68th Annual Lightning Winter Championship kicked off today with 67 boats from 5 countries at the St Petersburg Yacht Club.

Race 1 began around 3pm after an on shore postponement while waiting for wind. Multiple recalls ultimately resulted in a Black Flag start. With a predominate right hand shift and some current in effect Team Lutz from Brick, NJ lead around the course but didn’t get line honors as they started prematurely. That gave way for the family team of Larry MacDonald, Maggie MacDonald and Joy MacDonald from Carlisle, Ontario to take the win in race 1. Matt Fisher sailing with Dan and Tobi Moriarty finished 2nd and Tim Millheiser from Madison, CT sailing with Chris Vann and Alexander Lavalle finished 3rd.

With the day getting shorter, Race 2 began rather quickly. After a clean start the fleet saw oscillating shifts before the breeze settled in from the west. With lots of place changes taking place the under 30 team of Tim Scanlon, Cleveland, OH with Sam Williams and Bernie Roesler won Race 2. Team MacDonald finished 2nd. Geoff Becker, Annapolis, MD with Mike Marshall and Monica Morgan finished 3rd.

Team MacDonald is in the overall lead with 3 points. Team Scanlon is in second with 7 points. Team Fisher with 13 points is tied for 3rd with the young local St Pete team of Liem McCarthy, Bobby Savoie and Corey Hall.

Team Fisher is currently leading the US Lightning Pan Am Qualifier and also the Winter Master Championship division.

Racing continues Monday and concludes Tuesday. Full Results.

Report by class media.