by Art Petrosemolo

Justin Coplan with crew Danielle Prior and Mike Carney win the Lightning Class Metropolitan District Championships at the Monmouth Boat Club July 19-20. Photo by Art Petrosemolo

MBC’s Jack Huntsman, sailing with his son John and Pat Corr, finished second with 12 points and finishes of 1,1,5,3,2. Jon Schwartz, also out of the Monmouth Boat Club, finished third with 15 points and finishes of 9,2,1,2,1.

The district championships serve as qualifiers for the Lightning North American Championships which will be sailed this August at the Toms River Yacht Club.

Coplan – with several finishers from the Meto event - will meet challengers from across the country in the North American event. Coplan finished 15^th last September at the Lightning World Championships on Lake Champlain including a sixth place finish against the best competition in the class.

The Navesink River, Red Bank,  provided ever-changing conditions for the two-day event. Principal Race Officer Dale Barney delayed the start of racing until mid-day Saturday waiting for the wind to build. And build it did during the afternoon topping 10-12 knots and bring a light chop to the river. Barney ran four windward-leeward races during the afternoon with MBC’s Jack Huntsman wining the first two races; taking the first coming from behind in the last windward leg and the second leading from start to finish.

Coplan who finished consistently in the first three positions  throughout the regatta  won the final race on Saturday and held off Huntsman by one point with his third place finish in light, drifting conditions  Sunday.

            Coplan began seriously racing Lightning Class boats in 2008 when the Class Association provided him with a “grant” boat to campaign during the season. The Lightning Class, through the “grant program” encourages young, one-design racing sailors to focus on competing in one of the oldest and most competitive one-design classes being sailed today.