Last fall 5 places on the USA’s Olympic sailing team were settled. Beginning Saturday 5 more classes will have their representatives decided. The classes are: 49er, Yngling, Finn, Europe and Tornado. Racing will conclude on 22 February.

This month’s series of theme articles is on the Olympics. So, this week we’ll look at the second part of the USA”s Olympic trais.

The Yngling class sailed by 3 women teams has a number of potential winners. Hannah Swett recently was named US Sailor of the Year for her win at the 2003 Yngling worlds. Along with crewmates Purdy and Touchette Swett is a favorite.

The team of Alison/Leech & Ichyda is actually the world’s 2nd ranked team and finished 5th at the 2003 worlds. Jody Swantson skippers the 6th ranked team with Sertle & Crtazig as crew. They were 2nd at the Pre trials regatta. Ranked 9th is the team of Cronin/Haberland & Filter. Ranked # 21 in the world is the team of Barkow/Capozzi and Baroni. This is a younger team than the others.

I’ll give my predictive nod to Alison’s experienced team.

Meg Galliard ranked 12th in the world is a solid favorite in the Europe class as are the 6th ranked team of Tim Wadlow and Pete Spaulding in the 49er class.

The Finn class shows a number of possibilities including: Geoff Ewenson, Kevin Hall and Mo Hart. Hall is a slight favorite.

The Tornado catamaran class looks to be a two team race. John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree represented the US and are ranked 12th in the world. Lars Guck and Johnathan Farrar are ranked 21st. Lead up regattas show no dominant team. I’ll take the Guck skippered team on the basis of their recent peformances.

The conclusion of these trials will leave only the Star Class needing to hold trials and they will do so in March.

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