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When the pandemic hit last year, the Lightning fleet at the Buffalo Canoe Club was displaced from their home, because the club isn’t in Buffalo, it’s located in Point Abino, Ontario. The border closed so the American members couldn’t go sail in the magical waters of Abino Bay.
A solution was found when Sandy Beach YC, which is located one mile south of Niagara Falls on the Niagara River, opened their doors to the displaced Lightning sailors and offered their club and Race Committee to the fleet. The US-Canadian border remains closed and so the scenario is being repeated this summer.
While the fleet of 11 boats is smaller by more than half than most summers at the BCC, because some boats and sailors are stuck in Canada, it remains ultra competitive. There are several World and North American and champs like David Starck and his wife, Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Jody Starck, excellent just post-college sailors like Connor Godfrey and Katherine Moloney, along with multiple rising young sailors who get the benefit of sailing against world-class competition. Even the outstanding RC is staffed by Chair Fritz Dusel, who was a crew on a Lightning North American Championship boat, and markset Paul Grenauer who won a J22 Worlds as crew. Talent abounds everywhere on the course…
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