2009 International Lightning World Championship Underway

Colchester, Vt. – The 2009 International Lightning World Championship got underway, Sunday, September 13, on Lake Champlain in Mallett’s Bay, offshore from the Mallett’s Bay Boat Club in Colchester, Vermont.

Olympian Sarah Mergenthaler said she expected the conditions to be changing through out the day’s racing. Their team was going to try not to look too far ahead. They plan to race one leg at a time and remember that “you’re never out of it.”

After several hours of a postponed start for lack of wind, crews raced into the slight chop under grey skies with winds at 10-15 knots during the first day of the world-class competition.

After a recalled start with lots of boats over the pin line, Aroldo De Rienzo’s boat from Mexico crewed by Pablo Guzman and Skip Dieball, retired early with damage protesting Jon Shwartz’s boat from Linhof, N.J., crewed by Paul Krezinski and Donald Schon. The protest was later disallowed.

Finish standings after the first day of racing are: Gonzales of Chile in first place, Allen of Michigan, U.S. second place, and Fisher of Ohio, U.S. in third.

Race start today is slated for 11 a.m.

-Vermont Daily News staff report