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Meet Jody:
My family's path to the Lightning class may be slightly different than most. In the early 60’s, my parents bought a summer house along the Metedeconk River on the Jersey Shore. One day, my father saw a sailboat go by our beach, thought it looked cool, and that we should do that - lucky for me it was a Lightning!

He followed the boats back to their home base at the Metedeconk River Yacht Club and our family was hooked! He bought a boat #9629 with the intention of my three oldest brothers sailing it. Plans don’t always go perfectly, and after one eventful tip-over on the river, the plan of the three of them sailing together was over. I’m not sure if the story of two brothers fighting in the water was true, but one of them swimming onto our beach and never again setting foot on a sailboat again certainly is.

Somehow, the family continued my father’s mission of sailing, owning boats #10063 and #10374. Both my brother Jay and I went on to sail the junior program at Metedeconk, which led us into the Lightning because of the strong fleet that Jim Carson had built up. After his apprenticeship with Carson, Jay bought Jim’s Ugly Fuzzy #11784 and I joined the Team. My first major regatta was the 1977 Junior NA’s at the Buffalo Canoe Club with Jay and Don Schon. I still have friends that I met at that regatta to this day, a true testament to the family-like feel of the Lightning Class.

Jay and I continue to sail Lightnings together to this day, but more importantly, our kids have enjoyed the Class and followed in our footsteps of good sailing and better friends. Together with “Uncle Mike” Schon, we have taken great pride in mentoring Wade, Matty, Taylor, Jason and Jonathan to four different Junior NAs victories and top finishes at the Youth Worlds.

I will never forget attending the 1973 World Championship at the Buffalo Canoe Club as a young spectator. Since the boats were wet sailed, I remember walking out along the beach to Bruce Goldsmith’s boat, when no one was around, and touching it. Bruce was a Lightning legend, about to win the Worlds, and here I was touching his boat. What a feeling!

It is a thrill to join the Executive Committee, and I hope to give back to the Association just a little bit for what the Class has done for me and my family. ~ Jody