Cutting Cost, Not Fun : Lightning Circuit Designed to Keep Crafts New and Old Racing, and the Mood Light

SAN DIEGO — To the non-sailor, the term “regatta” may connote images of business magnates racing high-priced yachts.

But this week’s California Lightning Circuit regattas feature more college students than executives. The circuit, which continues Thursday at the Mission Bay Yacht Club, is San Diego’s showcase for a class of boat that is inexpensive--and required to stay that way.

The 19-foot, 700-pound Lightning dinghy has changed little since its prototype first hit Eastern lakes in 1937. The International Lightning Class Assn. has maintained rigid specifications on the boats’ design and hardware.

“What the class wants to do is preserve the boat,” said Al Poindexter of the circuit’s race committee. “They don’t want to make a major change that will outdate most of the boats in the water. By today’s standards, they’re not real high-performance racing boats, but they’re affordable and they can be very competitive.”

Because of the Lightning’s immutable design, a well-kept 25-year-old boat or a wooden craft built in a garage can hold its own against a state-of-the-art model direct from the factory floor.

“They’re trying to keep (the boat’s price) low, so that more people can sail them,” said Scott Finkboner, captain and three-time defending champion of the Mission Bay Yacht Club’s Lightning fleet. “They won’t let you buy high-tech sails like Mylar. You have to use Dacron. Otherwise, only the rich could afford it.

“They’re all designed to the exact same specifications, so it’s the skipper and crew that win the races. It’s whoever has the best tactics, whoever picks the best wind shifts.”

The competitors were first tested on South San Diego Bay, where the circuit’s 18 boats raced five times Sunday and Monday. The winning vessel was awarded three-quarters of a point, with all other racers assessed two through 18 points depending on their finish.

The boats competed in the circuit’s “marathon” Tuesday, traveling from Coronado, around the tip of Point Loma and into Mission Bay. The circuit concludes with five more races on Mission Bay Thursday and Friday.

The crew finishing the week with the fewest points wins the circuit championship, receiving a trophy and a few free drinks from the other competitors.

And what price victory? Well, a brand-new Lightning goes for about $7,000, though many of the boats in the circuit cost a fraction of that. Skipper John Harrop won the circuit’s opening five-race regatta with a 6-year-old boat he had bought two weeks earlier for $500.

“I stole it,” said Harrop, a psychology student at San Diego State University. “It was sitting on a trailer at the Mission Bay Yacht Club for two years. It hadn’t been touched. Everything on it was 1980. We just took off the cover and cleaned it and said, ‘Let’s go sailing.’ ”

The ease of buying and sailing Lightnings is reflected in the easygoing attitudes of the participants. Although the field features such Lightning luminaries as former world champion Tom Allen Sr., a veteran of the sport for 40 years who designs and builds the boats for a living, the circuit’s atmosphere is more like the Over-the-Line Tournament than the America’s Cup.

Skippers give their crafts names such as “The Fear and Loathing Special” and usually keep them equipped with a cooler full of beer for after the day’s last race. After returning to shore, the crews retire for an evening of camaraderie.

“The competition isn’t cutthroat, like some of the bigger classes where the people don’t even talk to each other,” Finkboner said. “We really are one, big happy family.”

That was evident after the opening regatta’s fourth race, during which the boom on skipper Larry Swearingen’s boat broke. Rather than having to sit out the last heat, Swearingen was asked to crew on a competitor’s craft.

The winning boat featured Harrop and his best friend, Dan Sullivan, both of whom have extensive experience with the San Diego State sailing club. However, it also included Rusty Sime, who has been sailing less than a month.

“Rusty’s in my geology classes at school,” Sullivan said. “I got him to come down and learn to sail. We taught him in two or three weeks. He’s really good.”

Sullivan’s fiancee, Kirsten Huntsman, came down to watch him compete but ended up competing against him. Huntsman, also an experienced sailor, was recruited to crew for skipper John Green. Harrop’s and Green’s boats finished neck and neck in the fourth race.

“I just come down to watch, but if someone can use me, I’ll go out,” Huntsman said.

Spirits were high on Cindy Salerno’s boat as the 1964 Lightning cruised toward shore after the first regatta’s final race. Salerno, a registered nurse, had finished 12th after being fouled in the third race and capsized in the fourth race. But in the final heat, the boat had come in fourth. Feeling magnanimous, Salerno and crew member Rich Schicho decided not to pursue a protest against the boat they believed fouled them.

“Still, it seems like they should be penalized somehow, since they were at fault,” Salerno said.

“Yeah,” said Schicho. “I think they should have to buy the beer.”