“This is the first sail of our ‘new’ Lightning #7592 (Capricorn) July 4th weekend, 2007 in the Sandusky Bay, Sandusky, Ohio. We put her in behind my Grandmother’s house using our Jetski crane, and it worked out great (yes, we closed the bailers first).

There haven’t been sailboats in this part of the bay for years, due to low water, but we took her out anyway, with the centerboard pulled way up, and the kickup rudder installed. We were probably in 24–30” of water near shore.

Our first sail consisted of paddling her out to the wind line, but once she got going we had a blast. Two grown men in a 1960 wood boat, barely knowing enough to keep her pointed the right way, and loving every minute of it. I have a long way to go before I ever challenge another boat to a race (any boat, even a canoe at this point), but learning is going to be so much fun on #7592!

The boat is well cared for in very original shape. I plan to do some minor bright work in the offseason, but she doesn’t need much. Looking forward to getting her up to the 70th Anniversary reunion in 2008!”