The Kids Table, Boat Grant 2024

Aidan Naughton / Marina Barzaghi / Adrian Van Der Wal 

March 30, 2024

Hello Lightning Class,

First, we owe a big thank you!

We are very excited to have received a Lightning boat for the year! For the past few years I have loved sailing with Parker Colantuono and the opportunity to have a boat of my own for the year is an exciting opportunity.

Marina and I left Rhode Island for St Pete in my truck, headed for Georgia to pick up a boat from somebody's backyard. We were not quite sure what to expect, after a long drive we arrived at the boat, finding it with nice covers and a trailer in good condition. We hooked it up and hauled the rest of the way down to St. Pete with no issues. A chat with Greg Fisher on the way down helped us to wrap our heads around the tuning of the boat and what mindset to have when using the sails. 

We arrived pretty late in the day and began to get the covers off and start to rig. Discovering that we have come into one of the newest boats in the fleet is a privilege and it was in fantastic shape. Some free hands helped us to step the rig and then Brian Hayes, Sr. was kind enough to stick around late to help us get all tuned up, giving away some of his secrets to get the rig in column… by sunset we were headed out, filled with appreciation that we could leave our headlamps put away. Thanks to the many helping hands.

The next day we hoisted up the boat and were off onto Tampa bay to do some racing. It would be my first time driving and Marina and Adrian's first time crewing in the Lightning so we had some boat handling kinks to work out and some speed moves to figure out as well. Both Marina and Adrian were quick to figure out a lot of the tricks and we were able to be near the pace rather quickly. It was a really tough fleet for a first test, and we found ourselves starting next to some of the fast boats which forced us to hang as best we could with those who had good boat speed. On land, everyone was very helpful offering tips and excited to talk about what worked for them. The racing was excellent, very competitive and one false move could be costly. Really quite the adrenaline rush, and it had us very proud of ourselves to achieve a 5th in a race, our hard work had paid off. We found ourselves enjoying the extra curricular activities as well, making new friends and catching up with old ones while out and about in St. Pete and in Miami, showing us that the Lightning Class likes to have a good time at nearly all hours of the day!

Looking forward to more this summer! 

Aidan 

Picture below: Adrian, PJ Schaffer (Team Mentor), Marina and Aidan.