Andrew Campbell's final Olympic regatta report

by Andrew Campbell on 27 Aug 2008 After avoiding the internet altogether the last few days I was in China, I had better get back to business here. As many CampbellSailing.com readers may have seen, the end of my Olympic regatta was no walk in the park.

The final day of racing was a phenomenal day of sailing. Uncommon westerly breeze filled steady across the course while big puffy clouds floated off the shore and 80 degree sunshine satiated all the fleets’ desires to get some decent racing in. The Race Committee finally got together three races as the wind died through the afternoon and somehow per usual we finished the afternoon’s race in less than three knots of wind and a raging upwind current.

Going into the day I was only about 20 points out of the top-ten and medal race contention, so I really saw it as if I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. If I could find a way out of the 16 range and put together three top-ten finishes I might be able to extend my series. I opened the day with a great start near the boat end and stretched out to the middle right. I rounded 15th an gained a few boats enough to start the day off well with an 8th.

The second race I had another good start, but after taking a header off the line got pinned into a spot I didn’t really like. About half way up the course I was looking to make a clearing tack back to the middle of the race course, leebowing a big group and hopefully getting back into the race. I saw one opportunity to tack starboard to port in front of one of my training buddies from Switzerland. I completed my tack in front of him, but not without having him cry out in frustration because of the close quarters. I sailed away from the incident confident that it was close but that no contact and no foul had occurred and knowing that if I did a 720 at that point, my regatta would indeed be over at day’s end anyway. I made it to the windward mark in the 28 range and was able to piece together a decent couple of legs and get back into the 17 range at the finish.

I though I still had a good chance going into the last race and after a bow-out start and a tack to the right, I was able to get around the first lap as high as 10th. Down the first reach the breeze started to get quite light and the current was pushing the fleet upwind at an alarming rate. By the time we got to the reach mark we were in a position to gybe across the fleet and try and cross them to the mark and star down the run. In the Laser fleet, unlike most of the fleets at the Olympics. the races are basically up for grabs between 8th and 35th place. All the boats get to most marks in most conditions bow to stern and more often overlapped. Somewhere in the gybe across the fleet’s bows the jury decided that I’d gained too much from a rock or the gybe and gave me a yellow flag. I had to spin a quick 720 as I watched the future gold medallist who I’d sailed the whole race next to sail away in a top ten finish. I still got out and to the inside of the run in ok shape in the teens, but with the current running hard upwind like it was the fleet was incredibly stacked up. As we approached the leeward marks for the gybe into the finish I was close to 14th place and the inside-most boat of what appeared to be a monster melee about to happen. Calling for room does little good in a situation where the outside nine boats are being rafted onto each other by the tenth boat as they try in vain to cut around the mark in 3 knots of wind while being flushed up the course in 1.5 knots of current. I literally sat rafted between my Turkish buddy Kemal and the mark for 20 seconds as guy slammed and pushed their way around the outside. I entered the situation 15th, and exited 30th. After an almost joking 360 for being rafted on the mark for so long, I think I finished 36th. The whole situation was incredibly comical in a sick sort of way. The same jury that had given me a flag for an extra rock on the top reach sat only yards away laughing as literally 25 Olympians fouled the daylights out of each other and me on the inside totally powerless to do anything about it. Guess how many protests were filed for the melee… zero.

I returned to the dock and hashed out a very civil protest against a friend about another small incident and thus took a DSQ in race two. The committee decided that I must have tacked too close to Christoph and that’s fine. The DSQ took me from a final position in the teens to about 25th overall. In reality once I’d fallen out of the top ten after the final race’s melee, the rest of it really didn’t count for much. It is a pretty fun thing to see the negative press about apparently bursting under the pressure of the Games. The scores never tell the truth. They don’t publish great comebacks or fleet-flipping windshifts. In reality, it was a very tough regatta and a bad result. I’m not unhappy with how I sailed. I know I could have finished better on a different week, but remembering that it was just one boatrace is hard for some people to do.

That said, I love the camaraderie of the Laser and all that the class has done for me over the last ten years since I started sailing the radial in 1998. I’ve been fortunate to know Zach Railey and Stu McNay (two of my teammates on this Olympic Team) for all of those ten years thanks to Laser sailing. I’ve been able to go to some incredible places and win some fantastic events. The Youth Champs, High School Champs, Collegiate Champs, World University Games and Pan Am Games and now the Olympic Games are certainly highlights of my Laser sailing, but the great men that I’ve been fortunate to meet and race against and race with are people that I will always call friends. This Olympic Regatta, for better or for worse will represent the last Laser regatta I sail in serious pursuit of the Olympic level. I won’t rule out a bunch of Laser sailing in my future, but at this point I will walk away from the class and into the future of my sailing career.

After only a few days off sightseeing Beijing and enjoying the rest of my Olympics at the Bronze Medal baseball game and the Gold Medal women’s basketball and the Closing Ceremonies with a few of my closest friends in China, I’m already looking forward to getting involved with other areas of the sport. I know that the Laser does not showcase my best skills in the game of sailing. Frankly I’m very much looking forward to using my brain instead of my legs to get around the course. The team-building and team dynamics that I learned at university will be better applied to sailing boats with more people on board. I’m not sure exactly the direction I’m headed for the next few months, but I do know that I will be racing boats fast and looking forward to it.

The Olympics has had a powerful influence on me. I look forward to coming back again. I have a wealth of great experience from this event that will make me a better sailor and a better person. Our team was rich with outstanding racers and staff and great friends. Parity in the game has created a negative atmosphere around this team’s performance over recent quads when in reality we are improving at a phenomenal rate. I want to personally thank Gary Bodie for his great help with the team since I’ve been on it. I have great faith that Kenneth and Dean and our staff will lead this team into a strong future. I desperately want to continue my involvement, but at this point I have to step away and reassess financially and personally. I’m really happy to have made some great friends and had incredible support from great sponsors and donors to my Laser sailing. I hope that they will see my step into the future of the sport as something that they can support with equal and increasing fervor.

More photos and debrief from the Olympic experience to come.

http://campbellsailing.com/