LONG BEACH, Calif.---To hear the competitors tell it, nobody in the world is the right size to sail the RS:X board, the new Olympic windsurfer.
Ben Barger of Tampa, Fla. has won all five races in this final weekend of Southern California's US Sailing Olympic Pre-Trials for eight of the 11 Olympic classes, but he had a harder time doing so Friday.
"I had my work cut out for me," Barger said. "These other guys are all quicker than me in a breeze."
That would include Seth Besse of Guilford, Conn., who was second in all three of Friday's races.
"I'm a good 25 pounds heavier than him," said Besse, who scales 185. "That's a big advantage for him until the wind hits 12 knots. At 15 to 18 we're pretty close, and at 20 I'm a lot faster."
The wind picked up to 11 to 14 knots on the second day of Pre-Trials for trhe RS:Xs and the 470s that sailed on an outer course with perhaps a bit more breeze.
At the other end of the scale is Nancy Rios of Cocoa, Fla., all 117 pounds of her, who has now won three of four of the women's races but has worked herself hard pumping the sail---the standard style in this class, especially when the wind is light. Afterward she needed a massage from Sean Hunt, a masseuse hired by US Sailing just for the windsurfers.
Rios noted that when it's light the women have to work harder because "the boys have bigger sails and were able to plane more. I'd like to switch for one day."
"I'd like to switch [bodies] with her," Barger said.
He's thinking ahead to the 2008 Olympic sailing at Qingdao, China, where the wind is notoriously light.
Besse said, "The guys who won [in the recent test regatta] in China weren't over 130 pounds."
In the 470s, Stuart McNay of Chestnut Hill, Mass. and crew Graham Biehl of San Diego moved well away from the pack with two firsts and a second for a 10-point lead with six of 10 races completed.
But the good news for several sailors was being able to discard their worst finishes after five races. That and scores of 3-1-2 for the day jumped one of the leading female teams, Amanda Clark of Shelter Island, N.Y. and crew Sarah Mergenthaler, Harvey Cedars, N.J., into a second-place tie with Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving in combined scoring. Clark and Mergenthaler suffered a 13-point score for jumping the start line in the second race Thursday.
"Not having that helped things," Clark said. "Today was a lot of fun. They gave us a long course that let the boats spread out."
Clark and Mergenthaler placed 11th in this year's women's 470 Worlds. "I like where we are in our campaign right now," Clark said.
Not liking where they are as much are one of America's stronger Olympic prospects, the team of Mikee Anderson and crew David Hughes of San Diego. They didn't sail Thursday because Anderson had an economics test at USC, from where he'll graduate in December. Their day was 7-3-3, leaving them ninth overall with only four races left to make a run.
"I hadn't been in a boat for seven weeks," Anderson said, "and we were really hurting mentally. I'm drained after exams."
Their worst moments were when their topping left dropped the spinnaker pole "three or four times" on one downwind leg, allowing four boats to pass them.
The background of Friday's racing was a line of yellow smoke from a massive inland desert fire that obscured the mountains and blew offshore down the San Pedro Channel, opposite from the onshore sea breeze from the southwest. The fire has claimed the lives of four firefighters and destroyed several homes
The 470s are sailing out of the US Sailing Center while the RS:Xs are based at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club down the street.
LONG BEACH, Calif.---A small delegation from Long Beach's Chinese sister city dropped in to watch the competition on the next-to-last day of Southern California's US Sailing Olympic Pre-Trials Saturday, and the weather conditions made them feel right at home.
Whatever brought the towns together as sister cities 21 years ago, it wasn't the wind, although it may have looked that way to the visitors. While Long Beach is famous for brisk afternoon sea breezes, Qingdao, site of the 2008 Olympic sailing, is already notorious for barely a breath of air.
The only real excitement Saturday came at the end of the 470 dinghy race when Erin Maxwell fell out of her boat.
We're not making any of this up. It's all part of the China Syndrome that has sailors all over the world refining the art of sailing without wind. This week it's worked out well here.
On Saturday the 470s managed only one race in 3-4 knots before the wind quit entirely, while closer to shore the RS:X windsurfers squeezed in a pair of short races around a patient postponement.
Maxwell, of Norwalk, Conn., is one of the stronger contenders for the U.S. berth in women's 470. Her crew is Isabelle Kinsolving of New York, who sailed to fifth place with Katie McDowell in the 2004 Olympics at Athens.
Maxwell and Kinsolving were fought their way to the finish line to nip regatta frontrunners Stuart McNay and crew Graham Biehl for second place behind winners Mikee Anderson and crew David Hughes.
"We did one big roll tack (see her demo in photo at right) and I missed my foot strap," Maxwell said. "The boat hadn't even completely crossed the line before I fell out."
But the finish left them in clear second place overall, although 10 points behind McNay and Biehl with three races hopefully remaining Sunday.
"Isabelle and I are a pretty new team," Maxwell said, "but we're happy with the way we're going. We haven't had many bumps."
Except, well . . .
The frontrunners, McNay of Chestnut Hill, Mass. and Biehl of San Diego, were reminded that they still face a dogfight with San Diego rivals Anderson and Hughes, who joined this competition a day late. The latter fought for the early lead with a brief tacking duel near the first windward mark, gave up the lead downwind but got it back to notch their first win in four races, with three remaining.
"We’re much better with their competition," Biehl said. "They overstood the mark downwind and we sailed a little faster, but we didn't do what we should have done on the second [upwind leg]."
On the RS:X course, Ben Barger of Tampa, Fla. stretched his perfect string to six, while Farrah Hall, Annapolis, broke Nancy Rios' win streak at four by outfoxing her Cocoa, Fla. rival in the last race.
Barger said, "I'm trying to find as much training as possible in these kind of conditions. It's good practice for China."
A win her would be a big step toward earning him not only the U.S. slot for the Pan-Am Games but a chance to sail in the Pre-Olympics at Qingdao next year. The other two events counting in the latter equation are at Miami next January.
"That's why this is one of the more important events," he said.
"The ranking events mean a lot for all the sailors . . . medical coverage, pay for the trip to the Pan-Am Games and the Pre-Olympics."
Hall said she finally beat Rios in the conditions that favor her lighter rival by picking the better side of the course.
"I was ahead and covering her, and then she and everyone else went the other way," Hall said. "Every once in a while I get lucky."
The 470s are sailing out of the US Sailing Center while the RS:Xs are based at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club down the street.
Previous Pre-Trials hosted this month: Tornado, San Diego YC; 49er, Southwestern YC, San Diego; Finn, Newport Harbor YC, Newport Beach; Star, California YC, Marina del Rey. Complete results are available at www.sdyc.org/trials/ or directly through the links in the right-hand column.
A year from now the same venues will host the formal Olympic Trials to select the one boat in each class that will represent the United States in the Olympics at Qingdao, China in 2008
LONG BEACH, Calif.---Stuart McNay and crew Graham Biehl in the men's 470, Amanda Clark and crew Sarah Mergenthaler in the women's 470 and Ben Barger and Nancy Rios in the men's and women's RS:X windsurfer, respectively, were winners in Southern California's final set of US Sailing Olympic Pre-Trials concluding Sunday.
Barger and Rios also qualified for U.S. berths in the Pan-Am Games next year.
This wasn't just a dress rehearsal for the big show a year from now when they'll compete for the sole slots in their classes to represent the U.S. in the 2008 Olympic sailing at Qingdao, China. It was worth more than that.
"A whole lot more," said Clark, referring to the campaign funding available to members of the US Sailing Team.
"It's an important step for us being ranked number one," McNay said.
The Southern California Pre-Trials in 8 of the 11 Olympic classes this month were the first of three ranking events for the US Sailing Team of 2007, which is now only three deep in each class instead of five as in past years so that available funds for travel, shipping and equipment may be concentrated on the cream of the crop prospects.
Also, being number one is even better because that means medical insurance, plus possibly additional grants from the Olympic Sailing Committee based on performance.
Clark and Mergenthaler were ranked No. 1 the past two years but were the second women's team behind Erin Maxwell and crew Elizabeth Kratzig starting the fourth and final day Sunday.
"We were under pressure to get our [number one] slot back," Clark said.
Worse, a starting violation on the first day put them in a hole they dug their way out of through six consecutive races with no finish worse than fifth climaxed by first place in the second of three races Sunday. They finished three points up on Maxwell/Kinsolving as four women's teams placed second through fifth in the combined scoring with the men---and how about that?
"These were conditions that women can do very well in," Blake said, referring to the generally single-digit winds that picked up only slightly to 8 or 9 knots Sunday. "That's what is good about the 470. We can be very competitive with men."
But they feared they had blown it all in the last race when, Mergenthaler said, "we sailed for the wrong windward mark."
Before realizing their error, they sailed toward a mark being used by a fleet of 70-footers racing farther offshore. Their mark had been moved because of a wind shift.
"We were just trying to cover our competition," Clark said, "and fortunately our competition sailed there, too."
McNay and Biehl have a temporary leg up on their strongest rivals, Mikee Anderson and crew David Hughes, who missed the first day because Anderson had an economics exam at USC. The latter won two of their seven races, but McNay and Biehl finished ahead of them in four. Anderson and Hughes wound up as the third men's team behind Justin Law and Michael Miller and seventh overall.
"It made for some competitive racing," McNay said, but the best part was winning the last race.
Biehl said, "We were talking about that on the final leg—how it's always nice to finish a regatta with a first."
Barger won all nine of the men's RS:X races, while Rios posted her fifth and sixth wins in eight women's races. Although the time limit had not passed for starting another race, the 10th race was cancelled because the wind was lighter than the minimum required to protect the board sailors from overextending themselves with the physical exertion required to pump their sails.
The 470s sailed out of the US Sailing Center while the RS:Xs were based at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club down the street.
Previous Pre-Trials hosted this month: Tornado, San Diego YC; 49er, Southwestern YC, San Diego; Finn, Newport Harbor YC, Newport Beach; Star, California YC, Marina del Rey. Complete results are available at www.sdyc.org/trials/ or directly through the links in the right-hand column.
A year from now the same venues will host the formal Olympic Trials to select the one boat in each class that will represent the United States in the Olympics at Qingdao, China in 2008.
LONG BEACH, Calif.---Along with draw poker and American Idol, sailing is one of the few competitions where women can face off with men on equal terms.
"It's wonderful," Isabelle Kinsolving said Thursday as the first day of 470 dinghy racing in the third week of Southern California's US Sailing Olympic Pre-Trials turned into Ladies Day on the water.
Stuart McNay of Chestnut Hill, Mass. and crew Graham Biehl, San Diego, emerged as the early leaders with two first places and a second, but the women's teams of Erin Maxwell/Kinsolving, Canada's Jennifer Provan/Carol Luttmer and the Czech Republic's Lenka Smidova with Elizabeth Kratzig of Miami Beach as crew grace the next three positions after the first of four days' racing.
The genders are separated in the RS:X windsurfer classes nearer the beach east of Long Beach, with Ben Barger of Tampa, Fla., runnerup to Peter Wells in the 2004 U.S. Trials, posting two runaway victories on the new Olympic board and Nancy Rios and Farrah Hall swapping firsts and seconds to share the women's lead after two races.
Following morning Santa Ana desert winds up to 15 knots, the breeze shifted 180 degrees to onshore for the rest of the day but only flirted with double-digit velocity, raising the opinion that the light wind favored the women because they're smaller. Kinsolving, a slim six feet tall and an Olympic participant at Athens, wasn't buying any of that.
"None of the men's teams here are significantly bigger than the women," she said.
Paul Foerster, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist who is coaching some of the women this week, chimed in, "They're just better sailors!"
Provan and Luttmer showed that when they won the first race by relentlessly holding off McNay/Biehl and Maxwell/Kinsolving on two laps around the trapezoid track.
"They're our tuning partners," McNay said. "They caught a nice right shift coming off the starting line and passed everyone."
Smidova also can be expected to hold her own this week. She won a silver medal for the Czech Republic at Athens and plans to sail with Kratzig, an American, as crew at Qingdao in 2008. Kratzig said nationality will not be a problem. "I have a residence there and meet all the requirements," she said.
Other sailors have switched countries from one Olympics to another---notably, Rod Davis of Coronado, Calif., who won a gold medal for the U.S. at Long Beach in 1984 and a silver for New Zealand eight years later.
Kinsolving said she welcomes the head-on rivalry instead of separate scoring because "otherwise when you work real hard to pass a boat and it turns out to be a man, it doesn't mean as much."
Barger (pronounced with a hard G, as in burger) was never challenged in his two wins. "The rest of the Americans here aren't as tuned up in the light air," he said.
The new RS:X is about a foot wider and a foot and a half shorter than the Mistral it follows in the Games, and the downside is that it's slower in light wind.
"In this wind today the old board would been faster," Barger said, "no doubt about it."
The 470s are sailing out of the US Sailing Center while the RS:Xs are based at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club down the street.
LONG BEACH, Calif.---America's best prospects for success in the 470 dinghy and RS:X windsurfer classes at the 2008 China Olympics will complete the month's round of Southern California's US Sailing Olympic Pre-Trials Thursday through Sunday.
About a dozen men's and women's 470s will sail out of the US Sailing Center in east Long Beach while about 10 RS:X windsurfers---the new Olympic sailboard---will be based at the nearby Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, launching off the beach across the street and racing the same waters where sail boarding was introduced to the Olympics in 1984.
Also, the first women's Olympic sailing gold medal was won by an ABYC member, Allison Jolly, sailing a 470 with crew Lynne Jewell at Pusan, South Korea, in 1988.
The dual regattas feature one of America's stronger Olympic classes---the 470---and another---the RS:X--- that faces an uphill battle to achieve a globally competitive level.
The 470s and RS:Xs are scheduled for 10 races each on adjacent ocean courses east of the breakwater. The 470s will start at noon the first three days and at 11 a.m. Sunday, conditions permitting. The RS:Xs will start at 1 p.m. daily. The men and women 470s will sail together, the RS:Xs separately.
No Olympic medalists and only one former Olympian are competing, but some Olympic medalists and past participants will be assisting in coaching roles.
Paul Foerster, who with crew Kevin Burnham won his country's only gold prize in the 470 at Athens in 2004, is coaching Erin Maxwell, Norwalk, Conn., and her crew, 2004 Olympian Isabelle Kinsolving of New York, in their women's 470 campaign.
Burnham is working with the Fox family siblings of Cumberland, Maine. Charles is in men's 470 with Adam Bennett pf East Moriches, N.Y., as crew; Sara is crew for Kathleen Love of San Diego in women's 470.
Also, Pease Glaser, a silver medalist with JJ Isler at Sydney in 2000, is coaching "Team Molly"---Carapiet of Tiburon, Calif. and O'Bryan of Annapolis.
Foerster said he and Burnham will offer Olympic insights to the competitors---"as many as we can remember"---plus the fact that "there's a lot more pressure [in the Olympics] because you get only one chance every four years."
The RS:X class has no coach assigned to it and hasn't been sailed extensively by Americans, which partly explains why no U.S. sailors are ranked higher than Ben Barger (No. 57), of St. Petersburg, Fla. Barger finished second to Peter Wells of Newport Beach in the men's Trials in 2004 before the Mistral board's swan song at Athens.
Of the RS:X, Wells said, "You weren't even able to buy the equipment until two years ago, plus while other countries have dedicated programs, windsurfing in the U.S. is ignored."
The top women competitors at the moment are Nancy Rios, Cocoa, Fla. and Farrah Hall, Annapolis, in the women's. They and Barger will be sailing this week. The winner in each class also qualifies for the Pan-Am Games.
"They're all experienced windsurfers," Wells said, "so all they need is the time and opportunity to learn the new board."
The new RS:X is "shorter and a lot wider," Wells said. "It's supposed to be able to plane sooner in light wind and has a larger sail, [but] it's heavier than the old board, [which] is faster in light wind."
Scott Steele won a silver medal for the U.S. in the sailboards' first Olympics in '84, but four-time Olympian Mike Gebhardt won the only other two---a silver in 1992 and a bronze in 1988.
US Sailing Olympic coach Skip Whyte, who oversees the 470s, said this event is important for all Olympic aspirants not only because "it allows them to acclimate to the conditions they'll see in the [final] Trials next year," but, like the previous four Pre-Trials this month, it's the first of three events that will determine the top three contenders who qualify for campaign funding from the Olympic Sailing Committee.
The US Sailing Team membership eligible for funding has been reduced from five to three in each class, according to a US Sailing statement, "as part of US Sailing's Olympic Sailing Committee ongoing mission to facilitate the success of elite performance athletes."
The 470s not only had a gold medal performance by Foerster and Burnham at Athens but a fifth place by Katie McDowell and Kinsolving. McDowell opted to finish school so Kinsolving hooked up with Maxwell, but Amanda Clark, Shelter Island, N.Y., and crew Sarah Mergenthaler, Matawan, N.J., have the highest international ranking at No. 8.
"Erin and I have been sailing against each other our whole lives," Kinsolving said.
Mikee Anderson and crew David Hughes of San Diego, ranked No. 10 by ISAF, and Stuart McNay, Chestnut Hill, Mass, and crew Graham Biehl, San Diego (No. 18), are the top-ranked U.S. 470 teams. Both sailed in the Olympic test event at Qingdao, China in August, placing 11th and 8th, respectively.
Anderson will be unable to race Thursday because of a school commitment at USC, so he will probably spot his rivals the first day's races, but there will be one throwout after five races.
If light winds were the order of the day for the start of US Sailing Olympic Pre-Trials in three classes Friday, most of the parties involved would like to know who ordered them.
Jeff Johnson, principal race officer for the Finns at Newport Beach, said, wryly, "As much as we want to duplicate light-air China, we were hoping for something better than this."
Over a 150-mile spread of venues, it was a nice day at the beach with temperatures in the 70s, but the Finns were unable to race at all at Newport Beach, while Morgan Larson and crew Pete Spaulding won two of three 49er races with 10 knots dropping to 5 at San Diego, as George Szabo and new crew Mark Strube scored a first and two seconds in three Star races in 4-5 knots at Marina del Rey.
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The bad news, with racing scheduled to continue Saturday and Sunday, is that Jennifer Lilly, US Sailing's weather forecaster for the Pre-Trials, , , couldn't offer much hope for the rest of the weekend.
"About 7 to 10 miles offshore [Friday] there was 15 knots of breeze but it just never made it all the way in," she said. "As the Pacific High moves into the Pacific Northwest you end up with an offshore gradient, and the problem is that what usually creates the breeze here is the thermal in the afternoon [when] the thermal causes the wind to move onshore. But when you have an offshore gradient it fights with the onshore thermal breeze and you end up with nothing.
"Unfortunately, [Saturday] looks about the same as today. Temperatures ashore should be a little bit cooler, which will mean less of a thermal gradient, which means you might see a steady breeze but only 5 or 6 knots. It looks like there is very little hope of having a strong breeze throughout the weekend."
No problem, said Larson. "We're pretty happy in all conditions." They hit the right side of the course hard all day.
"It was all about the right," Larson said, "and some of the people weren't really catching on. You could have done one-tack beats and been in first place in every race."
Morgan, 35, of Capitola, Calif., will join Sweden's Victory Challenge America's Cup team after this event. He finished a close second in the 2000 Olympic Trials and didn't campaign in 2004, then revived his effort two years ago with Spaulding, who was crew for Tim Wadlow when they finished fifth in the Athens Olympics in 2004.
Wadlow, now sailing with Christopher Rast as crew, is fifth overall after the first day. Ty Reed and Tedd White of Santa Barbara won the third race.
Szabo would call that a "typical crew rotation," which is common in the Star class. He acquired the veteran Strube as a crew "less than a week ago," he said. His former crew, Eric Monroe, is sailing with local veteran Ben Mitchell, and they are in eighth place after all single-digit finishes Friday.
Szabo's biggest problem was a foul he committed in the second race against Ireland's Maurice O'Connell, whose crew is Magnus Liljedahl, a former Olympic champion with Mark Reynolds, who is not competing this week.
"We tried to lee-bow [tack] on them at the windward mark and it didn't work out," Szabo said.
But they were able to do a penalty turn and hold onto second place, then followed veteran John MacCausland and crew Robert Schofield in the third race.
Szabo said, "We got lucky a few times today. We're experimenting with light-air sail shape."
At Newport Beach, Johnson said, there were signs of wind two miles out and he had hopes of starting a race until forced to abandon the effort in mid-afternoon.
"It toyed with us," Johnson said. "We had 3-5 knots at the committee boat and 3-5 knots at the weather mark but a big hole in the middle. We moved [the course] out a mile but the breeze just continued to dissipate. The consensus of the competitors was that we did the right thing."
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The Stars will be hosted by California Yacht Club at Marina del Rey, the Finns by Newport Harbor YC off Newport Beach and the 49ers by Southwestern YC off San Diego. Those regattas are among eight classes grouped as US Olympic Trials West events that opened with last week's Tornado class pre-trials. Racing will start at noon each day, conditions permitting.
A year from now the same venues will host the formal Olympic Trials to select the one boat in 8 of the 11 classes that will represent the United States at the Olympics in 2008.
The Pre-Trials spectacle will finish Oct. 26-29 with four days of racing for the men's and women's 470s at the US Sailing Center in Long Beach and the men's and women's RS:X---the new Olympic sailboard---just down the street at Alamitos Bay YC.
The breeze was OK for Day 2 of US Sailing Olympic Pre-Trials at three venues along the Southern California coast Saturday, but what some of the sailors needed most was radar.
"We got lost," said Andy Horton, the top-ranked U.S. Star sailor who with crew Brad Nichol, once a fog bank rolled through, recovered from a mediocre opening day Friday to win both races at Marina del Rey Saturday.
Casey, Tony Wattson and veteran Henry Sprague dominated two races in tricky conditions to beat a fog bank rolling down the coast.
At San Diego, with visibility limited to 50 meters, Southwestern Yacht Club principal race officer Bruce Greene had to hold the 49ers for two hours but then ran three races. Dalton Bergan and crew Zack Maxam scored 1-1-2 to pull within three points of the leaders, Morgan Larson and crew Pete Spaulding (2-2-1). So with one race remaining Sunday, it's a battle between two veteran teams. Winds were 5 to 9 knots.
The breeze was a pleasant 7 to 9 knots at Marina del Rey, but it delivered a thick layer of soup that caused California Yacht Club PRO Bill Stump to abandon the first race on the second upwind leg.
"How anybody found the windward mark boggles the mind," said Cal YC member Tom Leweck, the Curmudgeon of Scuttlebutt notoriety.
Horton and Nichol didn't. They thought they had their position worked out from timing their tacks on the first lap, "but we went right past the mark and kept on going," Horton said.
They didn't hear any abandonment signals but soon started sailing back downwind until they found a chase boat, which also was lost.
"This is only my second time racing in Southern California," said Horton, a Vermont native, "and my first time seeing this wind cycle. Once the fog lifted we just got back to sailing the way we know how to sail."
Their two wins, along with a throwout kicking in after five races, got them back up to third place, a point behind Andrew MacDonald and crew Brian Faith but off the pace of leaders George Szabo and crew Mark Strube, who have no finish worse than third.
The Finns won't benefit from a throwout unless they manage to sail three races Sunday for a total of five, which changes the complexion of the event for Sprague. The 61-year-old veteran from Long Beach was among five boats cited for jumping the starting line at the pin end in the first race but rebounded to win the second race. Unless he can toss those 40 points he won't have a prayer of a podium result.
Notified of his indiscretion at the first windward mark, Sprague said, "I was pretty disappointed. I took a stupid chance of being over."
In the second race, he said, "I was scared to death of being over again, but I did decide I was going to go [to the] right [side of the course], and the right worked."
Now he hopes the wind Sunday will be strong enough to race but light enough to serve his strength.
"In 7 knots or less I'm ready to ballet with any of these guys," he said.
Tony Wattson of Newport Beach won the first race and Andy Casey of nearby Fountain Valley is the overall leader. Zack Railey, the top-ranked American in the class, is four points behind Casey in a three-way tie with Brian Boyd and Geoff Ewenson. Railey was second in the first race despite doing a downwind penalty turn after the on-water umpires yellow-flagged him for excessive kinetics.
Bergan and Maxam found their 49er stride after posting three third places Friday.
"We're getting to know the conditions," Bergan said, "We've been surprisingly fast downwind. At the 2004 Olympic Trials [when they were second] downwind was a problem, so the last two years we've been working hard on it."
The Pre-Trials spectacle will finish Oct. 26-29 with four days of racing for the men's and women's 470s at the US Sailing Center in Long Beach and the men's and women's RS:X---the new Olympic sailboard---just down the street at Alamitos Bay YC.
A year from now the same venues will host the formal Olympic Trials to select the one boat in each class that will represent the United States at the Olympics in 2008.
They've tested the waters of Qingdao, China, and now they'll check in with their strongest rivals to represent America there in 2008 as the month of US Sailing Olympic Pre-Trials continues at three Southern California venues Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Gold medalists Andy Horton and crew Brad Nichol in Star, fifth-place Dalton Bergan and crew Zack Maxam in 49er and sixth-place Zach Railey in Finn were the top U.S. finishers in their classes in August's pre-Olympic test event at Qingdao---officially, the Good Luck Beijing Qingdao International Regatta---but they aren't taking anything for granted.
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"It's hard to say that there's ever going to be a [Star] favorite with the group of people that will be at the qualifier next year," Horton said.
The Stars will be hosted by California Yacht Club at Marina del Rey, the Finns by Newport Harbor YC off Newport Beach and the 49ers by Southwestern YC off San Diego. Those regattas are among eight classes grouped as US Olympic Trials West events that opened with last week's Tornado class pre-trials. Racing will start at noon each day, conditions permitting.
A year from now the same venues will host the formal Olympic Trials to select the one boat in 8 of the 11 classes that will represent the United States at the Olympics in 2008.
Railey (pictured left), of Clearwater, Fla., is a relatively new player in the fleet of 40 Finns at Newport Beach sprinkled with venerable competitors like Andrew Kern, Darrell Peck, Geoff Ewenson, Brad Nieuwstad and Henry Sprague, but none has had a more intense campaign.
"The last year has been going pretty well for me," he said. "I just spent five months over in Europe, and I learned an awful lot about myself and sailing the Finn."
Railey, ranked No. 13 by ISAF, is the top American in the Finn class. A lack of European competition because of the time and expense involved has handicapped Americans in international competition in recent years, but there will be a flip side early next year when Finn sailors converge in Railey's hometown for four months of informal training.
"It's going to be fantastic for the U.S. sailors not to have to travel all the way [to Europe] for this," Railey said.
Bergan, Seattle, and Maxam, Coronado, Calif., are ranked 12th by ISAF. After campaigning through Europe in a van they finished a close second to Tim Wadlow and crew Pete Spaulding in the 2004 Olympic Trials, and they have a new perspective this time around.
Bergan, a mechanical engineer, said he is "currently holding down a fulltime job, and Zach and I both got married in the last couple of months."
Bergan's bride is Lindsay Buchan, daughter and granddaughter of two Olympic gold medalists: Carl and Bill, respectively. Whether he'll follow their lead remains to be seen, but from years of sailing in San Diego he and Maxam should feel right at home if they win the ticket to Qingdao, which is already notorious for light wind, strong current and a big swell.
"It's a very unique place to sail," Bergan said, "and conditions in San Diego are pretty darn similar. As an Olympic Trials location it definitely matches [the Olympic venue]."
Spaulding, of Lafayette, Ind., now sails as crew for Morgan Larson of Capitola, Calif., who was a close second to Jonathan and Charlie McKee of Seattle in the 2000 U.S. Trials. Wadlow, of Beverly, Mass., took some time off after they finished fifth at Athens in 2004 and has returned with a new crew, Christopher Rast of Wake Forest, N.C.
Horton, 31, Shelburne, Vt., and Nichol, 27, Miami Beach, have been sailing together only two years this month and are ranked only 22nd by ISAF, behind five other American teams led by No. 2 George Szabo and Eric Monroe of San Diego. But their victory at Qingdao followed by a fourth-place finish as the top Americans in the recent Star Worlds at San Francisco places them among the contenders for the U.S. Olympic slot.
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"We've put in a lot of effort the last two years and it's starting to come together," Nichol said, noting that the class's old guard has a fight on its hands now. The New Zealanders who won the Worlds had sailed a Star only 10 months.
"But they put in more time in the boat than anyone else in the class," Nichol said. "That's what you're seeing with these new names at the top of the leader board. John Dane and Austin Sperry are putting in tons of time. This week the only two teams that were here [in Marina del Rey preparing] last Saturday were Andy and me and John and Austin."
As for four-time Olympian and triple medalist Mark Reynolds and the 2004 U.S. rep, Paul Cayard, Horton said, "Mark doesn't do a full-blown campaign like he used to, but I have no doubts those guys will be there at the end of the day. They're awesome. They're just not trying hard right now."
Nichol said, "No matter what the situation is, they've seen it before in a Star boat. Andy and I know how to make a boat go fast, but we need the time together in a Star to be ready for anything."
The Pre-Trials spectacle will finish Oct. 26-29 with four days of racing for the men's and women's 470s at the US Sailing Center in Long Beach and the men's and women's RS:X---the new Olympic sailboard---just down the street at Alamitos Bay YC.
SAN DIEGO---Olympic hopefuls Robbie Daniel and crew Hunter Stunzi of Florida suffered a setback Friday on the first day of Tornado catamaran competition in US Olympic Trials West as the favorites, 2004 Athens silver medalists John Lovell, New Orleans, and Charlie Ogletree, Kemah, Tex., led the way with two first places and a second in three races.
Daniel and Stunzi had posted a second and a third and were running well on the second upwind leg in Race 3 when their jib halyard snapped, forcing them to drop out. Barring further bad luck, they'll be able to discard the last-place result as their allotted throwout after five of seven races. Meantime, Enrique Figueroa and Jorge Hernandez of Puerto Rico, who won the U.S. Nationals earlier this week, were in second place with a 1-3-2 score line.
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The day, featuring a light morning rain prior to sailing, launched the first of three weekends of US Sailing Olympic Pre-Trial events for 8 of the 11 Olympic classes in Southern California. The Tornados are being hosted by San Diego Yacht Club.
The Tornados raced three times around a 1.8-mile windward-leeward race course on the open ocean three miles south of the city. Figueroa and Hernandez won the first race in a gentle 6 knots of breeze, but as the wind built to 12 through the afternoon Lovell and Ogletree took command.
"I like 15 knots," Ogletree said, "but I don't think we're going to see that here."
Racing continues Saturday and Sunday, starting at noon each day, conditions permitting.
Next weekend (Oct. 20-22) the 49ers will be at Southwestern YC in San Diego, the Finns at Newport Harbor YC and the Stars at California YC in Marina del Rey. The spectacle will finish Oct. 26-29 with four days of racing for the men's and women's 470s at the US Sailing Center in Long Beach and the men's and women's RS:X---the new Olympic sailboard---just down the street at Alamitos Bay YC.
A year from now the same venues in San Diego, Newport Beach, Long Beach and Marina del Rey will host the formal Olympic Trials to select the one boat in eight of the 11 classes that will represent the United States in the 2008 Olympic sailing at Qingdao, China in 2008.
Pre-Trials for the other three Olympic classes---Laser, Laser Radial and Yngling, plus 2.4mR, Sonar and SKUD-18 for disabled sailors---are under way at Newport, R.I. this weekend.
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SAN DIEGO---With silver medals already in their pockets from Athens in 2004, John Lovell of New Orleans and crew Charlie Ogletree of Kemah, Tex. aren't complacent about their bright prospects for representing the U.S. in their fourth Olympic Games at Qingdao, China in 2008. Their goal is higher than that.
"Definitely," Lovell said after the 39-year-old veterans posted third and first places on the final day of the Tornado catamaran competition in the US Sailing Pre-Trials Sunday. "We came back for this campaign to win a gold medal."
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The three-day event hosted by the San Diego Yacht Club was the first of three weekends of Pre-Trial events for 8 of the 11 Olympic classes in Southern California, collectively grouped as US Olympic Trials West.
Lovell and Ogletree's tuning partners, Enrique Figueroa and Jorge Hernandez of Puerto Rico, finished second overall in the 12-boat fleet, five points behind the winners and three ahead of the next best American team of Robbie Daniel and Hunter Stunzi of Florida.
Winds were a light 6 knots for Sunday's first race but built to 12 for the second, giving Lovell and Ogletree a boost in their preferred conditions.
"We were able to double trapeze downwind," Ogletree said. "That was fun, and we won by about one-and-a-half minutes."
Next month their campaign moves to Argentina for the South American Tornado championships, a tune-up for the Worlds in Buenos Aires starting Nov. 18. Another major step will come in Portugal next year in their first opportunity to qualify the U.S. for the Olympics in the Tornado class. Each country must demonstrate a high level of performance in a class before any of its individual competitors are allowed to compete.
"After the Worlds we'll take a littler time to rest, then start to focus again," Ogletree said.
Next weekend (Oct. 20-22) the 49ers will be at Southwestern YC in San Diego, the Finns at Newport Harbor YC and the Stars at California YC in Marina del Rey. The spectacle will finish Oct. 26-29 with four days of racing for the men's and women's 470s at the US Sailing Center in Long Beach and the men's and women's RS:X---the new Olympic sailboard---just down the street at Alamitos Bay YC.
A year from now the same venues in San Diego, Newport Beach, Long Beach and Marina del Rey will host the formal Olympic Trials to select the one boat in eight of the 11 classes that will represent the United States in the 2008 Olympic sailing at Qingdao, China in 2008.
Pre-Trials for the other three Olympic classes---Laser, Laser Radial and Yngling, plus 2.4mR, Sonar and SKUD-18 for disabled sailors---were sailed at Newport, R.I. this weekend.
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SAN DIEGO---Three-time Olympians and Athens silver medalists John Lovell of New Orleans and Charlie Ogletree of Kemah, Tex., head the Tornado catamaran fleet that leads off US Olympic Trials West Friday with three autumn weekends of US Sailing Olympic Pre-Trial events in Southern California.
A year from now the same venues in San Diego, Newport Beach, Long Beach and Marina del Rey will host the formal Olympic Trials to select the one boat in eight of the 11 classes that will represent the United States in the 2008 Olympic sailing at Qingdao, China in 2008.
Pre-Trials for the other three Olympic classes---Laser, Laser Radial and Yngling, plus 2.4mR, Sonar and SKUD-18 for disabled sailors---are scheduled at Newport, R.I. this weekend.
San Diego Yacht Club will host the Tornados that are scheduled to sail seven races over Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting at noon each day, conditions permitting. Their race course will be on the open ocean three miles south of the city in the area known as Coronado Roads.
Lovell (pictured left) and Ogletree (right) celebrated their 39th birthdays Wednesday---Lovell is two hours older---by claiming their record 10th and fourth consecutive U.S. National title in the class since 1993. Although Enrique Figueroa and crew Jorge Hernandez of Puerto Rico finished on top with five first places in eight races, they were not eligible for the U.S. championship. (Complete results and photos at http://www.sdyc.org/raceinfo/results06/tornadoNatsFinal_res.htm)
Winds were seldom stronger than single digits, but that was fine with Lovell and Ogletree. They recently placed fourth in the Good Luck Beijing-Qingdao International Regatta, an Olympic test event where the sailing will be contested in 2008 when they hope to be competing in their fourth Olympics.
Asked which venue of all they have sailed in around the world compares best to Qingdao, Ogletree said, "San Diego. It's light here, and there's some swell and some current. It's not as shifty here. Qingdao has bigger shifts. But we know we need to spend a lot of time between now and the Olympics working on light air, so we'll definitely spend some time here."
Lovell and Ogletree have been sailing together for 13 years, longer than some marriages last.
"That's what our wives say," Ogletree said. "The key is we have a good relationship on the water, and off the water we spend a lot of time together and are really good friends."
Next weekend (Oct. 20-22) the 49ers will be at Southwestern YC in San Diego, the Finns at Newport Harbor YC and the Stars at California YC in Marina del Rey. The spectacle will finish Oct. 26-29 with four days of racing for the men's and women's 470s at the US Sailing Center in Long Beach and the men's and women's RS:X---the new Olympic sailboard---just down the street at Alamitos Bay YC.
The fleets generally will be small by small-boat norms, which is the nature of Olympic Trials. US Sailing ranks the country's Olympic hopefuls by competitive success, and five of the top American Tornados will be racing at San Diego.
New York -- October 11, 2006, the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) recently celebrated the launching of the first NYYC 42, the ninth one-design class created by the club since 1900. Some 200 members and guests took part in the festivities at the NYYC’s Harbour Court clubhouse in Newport, RI – many of whom sailed aboard the boat.
The boat is designed by Frers and built by Nautor’s Swan. Its introduction was unparalleled: 35 boats sold within the first six months—25 to members.
The concept was for a Corinthian one-design multipurpose yacht that will be very competitive as a one-design racer but also under IRC. The yacht will be capable of racing and cruising locally as well as offshore. NYYC Rear Commodore David K. Elwell Jr., who spearheaded the project, said the boat is “one answer to the growing concern by Corinthian owners about the domination of professionals in the sport.”
The NYYC 42—known as the “Club Swan 44” outside the club—is a powerful, state-of-the-art yacht, showing a high-aspect-ratio rig and T- keel. The LOA is 42.6 feet, the LWL is 37 feet, beam 12 feet, sail area 1,175 square feet and displacement is less than 13,986 lbs., of which 48 percent is ballast.
The NYYC 42 features two steering wheels, providing a better steering ratio and better feel; two accommodation plans are offered: a two- or three-cabin version.
Keeping costs down—initially and over time—has been another consideration. To that end, boats will have an initial order of seven sails: a main, three spinnakers and three headsails. No more than three replacement sails are allowed each year, according to class rules. Further, while up to two professionals can race on a boat, they can’t steer and can’t be compensated for sailing on the boat.
Others working on the project include Chris Bulger, class president, Gibbs Kane, Sandy Vietor and Paul Zabetakis. Mick Harvey, who built several America's Cup yachts for Dennis Conner, is project manager.
Nautor’s Swan built a full-scale mock-up of the interior, including wood members that correspond to the ceiling height. This was helpful in determining the best use of available space. Building a full-scale mock-up is almost unheard of in a yacht of this size.
The legendary yacht designer Nathanael Herreshoff, an honorary member of the NYYC, designed the Newport-30 class in 1896. Members who had seen or sailed in these Newport 30s went to "Cap'n Nat," and in 1900 came the first of these classes: the NY70, to be followed by the famous NY30s in 1905. (In 2005, this class celebrated its 100th Anniversary Regatta at the club’s Harbour Court facility. Seven of the 18-total yachts built made an appearance.) The NY57s came about in 1907, the 50s in 1913 and the popular 40s in 1916 (24 were built). In 1935, Olin Stephens, a member of the club since 1930, designed the NY32. Twenty three were built, and they were a very popular class in their day. In 1980, a group turned to Naval Architect Bill Cook who drew the lines of the NY36. Sixty were built. Three years before came the NY40 -- of which 21 were built. It remained a popular class at the New York Yacht Club for more than 25 years.
The first NYYC 42 went to the Cahoots Syndicate—a longtime partnership of NYYC Commodore George R. Hinman Jr., Rear Commodore Elwell, Richard Werdiger and Donald Elliman. Like the previous yachts it was named Conspiracy. Next summer, the NYYC will host the first NYYC 42 Nationals, where 20 boats are expected to compete.