Celebrating the Paralympic Games—Sailing news from the U.S. and beyond
by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 13 Sep 2016
Rio 2016 Paralympics - Day 1, September 12, 2016 Richard Langdon / World Sailing
While the eyes of the sailing world were riveted on Rio de Janeiro during the XXXI Olympiad (August 5-21), their gaze shifted in the intervening weeks, which were filled with other top-flight sailing regattas, including the America’s Cup World Series Toulon, France event (September 10-11), last week’s Etchells Worlds (August 31-September 10), and this week’s Rolex Big Boat Series (September 15-18). Now, however, this same set of baby blues is once again fixated on Brazil, as the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games (September 7-18) have officially begun.
Racing for all three Paralympic classes began on Monday, September 12, with moderate breezes (ballpark 8-12 knots) that allowed the race committee to get in two races for the 2.4mR, Sonar and SKUD18 classes.
While these are still early days for this important regatta, at the time of this writing Helena Lucas (GBR) was in the pole position in the one-person 2.4mR class, followed by Heiko Kroger (GER) and Dee Smith (USA); Canadian Bruce Miller was in eighth place, some eight points astern of the Top Three.
“In the first race, I didn’t get off the line very well, and I got 'pinged' a couple times, with too many tacks on the first beat,' said Dee Smith, a longtime professional sailor who is making his Paralympics debut at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. 'The second race was very clean. I won the start, and it was a two-way battle with Helena [Lucas] from Great Britain for the next couple of legs.'
Considering that Lucas was the class’ gold medalist at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Smith is clearly trading tacks with the right players in the fleet.
In the two-person SKUD18 class, Australians Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch were in first place, followed by Canadians John McRoberts and Jackie Gay, and Italians Marco Carlo Gualandris and Marta Zanetti; Americans Ryan Porteous and Maureen McKinnon were in fifth place, 6 points outside of the Top Three.
In the three-person Sonar fleet, Australians Colin Harrison, Jonathan Harris and Russell Boaden were topping the scoreboard, followed by New Zealanders Richard Dodson, Andrew May and Chris Sharp, who were tied on points with the Greek team of Vasileios Christoforou, Theodoros Alexas and Anargyros Notaroglou; Canadians Paul Tingley, Scott Lutes and Logan Campbell were in fifth place and were tied for points with the always quick American squad of Rick Doerr, Hugh Freund and Brad Kendell.
Racing is set to resume on the waters of Rio’s infamous Guanabara Bay today (Tuesday) in the 2.4mR and SKUD18 classes, and is expected to continue each day in all classes through Saturday’s high-stakes and high-pressure medal race. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the race committee is planning for two races per day per class, and a single medal race is planned for each class on Saturday.
Rio’s long-term weather report is calling for sunny skies and warm temperatures through Thursday, when some cloud cover could move it, potentially adding a bit of “liquid sunshine” (as we call it here in the “Pacific Northwet” [sic]) for Saturday’s medal racing.
So, while there’s a lot competing for your sailing-media attention on both national and international sailing stages these days, sailing fans are gently reminded that, when it comes to highly polished One Design racing, there is no better show of sailing talent, long-term determination and all-out gumption unfurling right now than the Rio 2016 Paralympics.
Go Team Canada and Team USA!
May the four winds blow you safely home,
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