A four generation Lightning family

By Anne Roth and Sara Hueber Collins

Our odyssey with Lightning sailboats began in the 1940s when my father, A. Brohmann Roth, purchased 1072, which he named Saga.

The Onondaga Yacht Club, which was founded in 1885 on Onondaga Lake, had a sizable fleet of Lightnings and Dad wanted to be part of it.

He did not know how to sail so he bought a small sailboat to practice on; it was quite exciting when he would decide to go about.

In due time he became accomplished and raced weekly with the fleet.

In 1965 my husband, Dick Hueber, and I built a cottage on Skaneateles Lake.

One Christmas, my three children received a Sunfish from their grandparents, so they began to learn to sail.

When my eldest son, Phil, was 18, he purchased Lightning 874 from Bunt Osborne for $100.

He spent every minute that he wasn’t working for Mid Lakes Navigation Co., restoring it.

Our neighbor, John Marsellus, would drive by daily and observe Phil laboring over the hull.

One day he arrived with a special gift: a mahogany splash rail made at his business;

Phil dubbed the boat, Roamin’ With Brohmann. Time passed, Phil went on to graduate from college, took a job in New York City and I was left with 874 which I sailed for a few years.

An annual event was to sail the nearly nine miles to the Skaneateles Country Club to join the All Lake Regatta.

Eventually I yearned for fiberglass. It had become too difficult to keep up with the yearly caulking and finding the able bodies to turn the heavy woodie over.

A search began for a second hand Lightning which resulted in my purchase of 12031 from a woman in Chaumont.

What a beauty: an aquamarine hull, gold tone metal mast, crisp sails, bright spinnaker.

She was named Roamin’ With Brohmann 2. The highlight was the 50th Anniversary Lightning Regatta, July 1988, at the club, the home of Lightning Fleet #1. My friends, Janet Besse and Peggy Laidman, who grew up on Lightning #1, sailed with me.

All over age 50, with Janet the most experienced racer, at the helm. Yes, we made the newspaper!

In the meantime, my daughter Sara, married expert Skaneateles sailor Bill Collins and former Head Sailing Instructor at SCC’s Sail School.

They purchased Lightning 13727, named it Moonshadow and raced locally.  Careers took precedence; ultimately Roamin’ and Moonshadow were sold which brings me to 2018.

This is the year of the 80th Anniversary Lightning Regatta July 6 to 8.

Sara volunteered to be on the regatta planning committee last summer.

Shortly there after, she noticed  Lightning 13900 for sale on the mole at the club and purchased it from former racing competitor Chris Kuhns.

As a surprise, the boat was given to daughter Agnes, now 12, who has been in SCC’s Sail School since age 7.

She will skipper in the 80th, with her father Bill and Libby Wiles as crew.  She has chosen to rename her boat Fourth Generation!