Light winds start Lightning North Americans

San Diego, CA (July 25, 2018) – The teams of Todd Wake, sailing with his wife Kristine and son Douglas and Marvin Beckmann with Meredith Ryan and Jimmy Barnash mirrored each other’s scorelines to tie for the early lead after day one of the 2018 Lightning North American Championship.

Beckmann scored a 1,5, while Wake scored a 5,1 to sit together at the top of the podium, with a 5 point lead over the third place team of Jeff Coppens, Tom Goddard, and Marianna Shand.

The day was characterized by a fickle, inconsistent attempt at a seabreeze. The “marine layer” of fog and overcast extended well over the San Diego shoreline, and as such hampered the development of a thermal. The race committee postponed on the water for an hour, attempted to start a race, and had to re enter postponement after a few large shifts.

The first race started in a 4-6 knot Southeasterly breeze. Team Beckmann started forward and played the shifts up the first beat to find a lead at mark 1. He was followed closely by Ched Proctor and David Starck. Marvin and his crew extended slightly on the run and covered safely on the second beat to extend and win the race by a substantial margin.

In race two, team Wake started in the middle of the line and tacked to play the middle right up the first beat. Team Coppens led early, along with Tito Gonzalez and Julio Velez, but Wake found a vein of pressure and a slight right shift to lift off of Coppens, coast around the windward mark, and lead into the run. Their lead grew on the run, the next beat, and they finished the race with over a 2 minute and 30 second lead.

Racing will be held July 25-28.

Event details – Results – Facebook

Source: Doug Wake