From the Desk of the Lightning Class Historian (Beta): Craig Thayer & Bill Fastiggi's notes on Fleet #7

After posting earlier on Fleet #7 I received an email from Bill giving me insight in to what happened at Riverside YC. He says in the Forties that the Fleet Lightnings were loaned to the Juniors during the summer weekends and raced by the parents on weekends. Great arrangement. By end of the Forties the kids were wanting a sportier boat. Riverside YC would go to the Fireball, a small plywood scow with a trapeze. Bill says this was the story all along the Sound.
Craig, who grew up on the south side of the Sound in Huntington dose not re
member Lightnings as Junior trainers. He remembers the S&S Bluejay ( a 13' miniature Lightning) being the kids boat.

Two different takes by two reliable sources. Looking into it I find they are looking at two different times. The Fall 2016 issue of Flashes had a photo in my history column of a cover from the August 6 , 1945 Life magazine showing kids rigging a Lightning at Riverside YC.

Note the magazine's date... it's the day the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan ending WWII.

Going back to my files to review the issue I re-read the article which was about the Juniors Program at Riverside which describes the program being sailed in Lightnings. The instructor is Jane Webb who's dad was an early Lightning hotshot on LIS. Better yet looking at the photos we find old 'Tam', #289, again,

so we now have #289 as a cover girl (we have many more Lightnings on magazine covers over the years including Ladies Home Journal and Sports Illustrated, we will get to them in the coming months ). Now with Bill's contribution we can tie it all together. Here, slip back to 1945 and enjoy the Life article:

If your club or class boat made the cover of a leading publication you would want the world to know. Lets look at Yachting. The magazine ran in the back pages several columns for sailing areas and classes. There it was in the October 1945 issue of Yachting. We find our Class President James M. Trenary (#298) penning a section called "Lightning Flashes". He announces the August Life article and we find the Life photographer who did the piece was crew on Lightning #675.

From a couple of seconds clip from a video I published a couple of posts back we have tied things together to give us an insight into our early Class history. Here is the Yachting, note the establishment of the first Class office, Karl Smither ( Fleet 12) goes for a swim and we read of the start of Lightning sailing in Columbia SA.

Now for Craig, he is a decade ahead in the 1950s. The Blue Jays he remembers was designed by Sparkman & Stephens. Like the Laser the Blue Jay started as a sketch on a napkin. Doodled by Drake Sparkman (Lightning #5) and his fellow YC members in 1947. One suggested the name "Blue Bird" and Drake refined it by calling it "Blue Jay" making for an inexpensive Class insignia, using a stock sailmakers blue colored letter 'J' . Taking it to Olin Stephens the plans for the boat were drawn in 1948 and the first Blue Jay was shown at the 1949 New York Boat show. S&S would ( and still does) sell the plan for a nominal fee. The Blue jay went to fiberglass in the Sixties. Two of the molds made are owned by the Blue Jay Class and are in good hands at Allen Boat Co. in Buffalo. Need a 'J', give Tom a call.