Three LSC Lightning Teams Go to Pontiac and Bring Home a Trophy

Pat and Bob focus downwind Picture by Susanna Tellschow

Susanna taking charge of Race Instructions Picture by Bob Miller

Half of the active Lightning skippers were in Pontiac to compete in this years 48th Annual Whitecap Regatta. Skippers Jim Fletcher, Blaine Severin, Larry Koster, Susanna Tellschow and Pat Dolan combined their talents with some excellent LSC crew to compete in three Lightnings.

Contratulations to Pat Dolan, Bob Miller and Susanna Tellschow for their ninth place finish sailing "Wind Dancer". "This was the best finish in my memory for any LSC Lightning at any recent away regatta," said Larry Koster, "and they were competing against twenty-six other top-notch crews from Michigan, Ohio and Illinois in blustery, wet conditions."

Larry Koster joined the "Unidentified Flying Pigasus" team as middle crew while Julie Pierce sailed in the front of the boat and Blaine Severin drove. They enjoyed the hospitality of Hank and Esther Callahan Saturday night.

Meanwhile, the "Splash" crew included Maribeth Fletcher in front, Stephen Wagner in the middle and Jim Fletcher helming. This crew, along with Susanna Tellschow, camped on the grounds of the Pontiac Yacht Club.

A short delay while storms passed by kept sailors in the clubhouse for a while on Saturday, but three races were still sailed. Another two were sailed on Sunday. Although overcast all weekend, there was plenty of wind and hiking muscles were exercised in all the races.

"Wind Dancer" had the best finish of any Lansing boat in recent years and came home with a ninth place trophy. In such a competitive fleet, the crew was very pleased with their result. "We sailed very consistently," said Pat Dolan noting the team's 9-10-11-9-8 record. "And we problem solved exceptionally well with the windy conditions giving us plenty of issues to deal with". With only fair starts in most races, "Wind Dancer" had a lot of catching up to do. Bob Miller worked the compass hard to keep the boat in phase upwind. Boat handling was solid as usual - particularly the gybe takedowns as the boat consistently came in on startboard tack with speed at the leeward mark. "Our upwind speed was particularly good the second day as we made some changes based on debriefing the first day," said Dolan. "And we consistently passed boats on the downwind legs as Susanna handled tactics and kept finding solid wind gusts and kept us in them."

Julie, Larry and Blaine on "UFP" Photo by Susanna Tellschow

"Splash" crew powering up on starting line Photo by Susanna Tellschow

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