St. Petersburg Yacht Club
 For the 2007 Lightning Class Winter Championship

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Race Management Committee Chairman, Robin Wallace's Presentation Address:
This trophy was initiated in 1967 when the St. Petersburg Yacht Club recognized the importance of excellent race management as a key ingredient for a successful event. In 1970, the trophy went in to retirement but in 1978 was reactivated and presented to the then North American Yacht Racing Union. Winners of this trophy have been from all across the United States following the initial award to the Royal Canadian Yacht Club. 

The selection process includes a review of an event from different perspectives including the competing skippers' assessments, a report on the race management from the Protest Committee, a review of all the official documents including the Notice of Race, Sailing Instructions, any amendments and a detailed report from the Principal Race Officer. This year thirteen clubs submitted applications which were reviewed by group of Race Management Committee members chaired by Taran Teague - eight clubs survived the initial review!

After an extensive dissection of all the reports, the selection committee has recommended Lightning Class Winter Championship in Florida.  Competitor comments included: "Good Job, Fantastic, Very difficult, Signal visibility great, Great job - very professional race management, We particularly liked the Race Committee's onshore method of communicating, face to face, giving us the plan for the day."

The winner for 2007 of the St Petersburg Yacht Club Trophy for Excellence in Race management is - St. Petersburg Yacht Club.

 Accepting the trophy on behalf of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, Event Chairman - Bob Birkenstock, remarked that this was the first time that St. Petersburg Yacht Club had won the trophy but that this was the fourth time that PRO Tom Farquhar had lead the winning race management team. Lightning Class President Steven Davis also spoke.