2003 Lightning Worlds

Hello everyone from Miami
Today was the final day of the International Masters Championship for Lightnings. Jim Crane won, with Bill Mauk second, Jack Elfman 3, Colin Park 4, Fay Regan 5, and the rest of the results at www.lightningworlds.org.

For this regatta, the skipper has to be 55, and the total combined age for skipper and crew is 135 (or is it 140??)So there are a lot of father-and-son duos, plus some downright inspirational sailors, like John McIntosh from Savannah, with two replaced knees, two replaced hips, and one replaced shoulder (the other needs it apparently) having a ball. ANYhow, it has been very breezy in Miami, no races yesterday, lots of boats flipping, and lots of funny stories ("Yeah, we were about 20 feet from the windward mark when Uncle Lump decided to jump overboard.").

Among those of us not yet qualified for the group, like Jeff and Mark and me, plus Barr Batzer and lots of Lightning friends from out of town -- Skip Diebold, Dave Starck, Jody Swanson and Heidi -- have been keeping plenty busy measuring sails, boats, and rigs. THe breeze at least has kept us comfortable during this.

Amazing amount of work -- everyone should be involved in a regatta like this at least once to really appreciate what gets done. Barr is doing the work of 20.

Right, must go. I am trying to keep a short blurb posted on Scuttlebutt website about the standings, and I think Mark is doing a Taylor diary of the event. Hope this works to keep everyone up to date. Amy

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