Sailors find conditions light at Miami OCR

by Barby MacGowan on 25 Jan 2007 The wind remained light for a second consecutive day at US SAILING's Rolex Miami OCR, but for the 855 sailors from 49 countries competing here, it replicated the conditions expected in Qingdao, China for the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Regattas.

In fact, this event -- the largest in its 18 years of blanketing Biscayne Bay and area clubs with elite sailors and their finely-tuned boats -- also replicates the sailing format that will be followed at the Games: fleet racing held over multiple days and a final medal race on Saturday for the top 10 sailors in each class.

'The number of racing participants here is about twice as many as will have the honor of representing their countries at the Games two years from now,' said Dean Brenner, chairman of US SAILING's Olympic Sailing Committee, 'so that would be the only big difference. Sailors are definitely dealing with quantity, but it's really the quality of the competition that makes this one of the most important regattas on the world circuit.'

With the Rolex Miami OCR being sailed on waters familiar to the US Sailing Team and US Disabled Sailing Team, it is no wonder that American sailors are here in full force. US Sailing Team members Amanda Clark (Shelter Island, N.Y.) and Sarah Mergenthaler (Aberdeen, N.J.) won the first race in today's 470 Women's class while Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving (Norwalk, Conn./New York, N.Y.) won the second. 'We had good speed downwind, a really firm grasp on the numbers and played them perfectly,' said Mergenthaler. 'Our strategy, however, didn't work well in the second race. Whoever banged the left corner got out ahead and stayed ahead.' Clark and Mergenthaler are fifth overall while Maxwell and Kinsolving are in second, behind The Netherlands' Marcelien de Koning and Lobke Berkhout. Maxwell and Kinsolving, an Athens Olympian, have only sailed together for two regattas, but their talent is testing positive for Olympic potential. 'Olympic sailing is the top of the sport,' said Kinsolving. 'It's an incredible experience; we're only at the beginning of our road.'

Great Britain's Olympic Silver Medalist Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield topped the scoreboard for a third consecutive day in 470 Men's class. Spain's Gustavo Martinez and Dimas Wood are their closest rivals and won today's second race after finishing 10th in the first race. Rogers and Glanfield posted a 6-2, which was enough to maintain their lead and keep Spain six points behind them in overall scoring.

'In the first race, most of the big players were in the top ten, but in the second race, it was just us and Spain there,' said Rogers. 'Israel, Australia and some others were back a bit. Tomorrow will be a bit breezier; it will bring the good sailors to the front because less will be left to chance.'

Other top American finishers today include Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla., USA), the number-one ranked Laser Radial sailor on the US Sailing Team and in the ISAF world rankings, who leads the fleet after posting an impressive total of three bullets in six races - two on Monday and one today. The number-one ranked Yngling team on the US Sailing Team, Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.), Carrie Howe (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) and Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.), is in second place after seven races, sharing 20 points with Anne Le Helley's team from France. 49er sailors Morgan Larson (Capitola, Calif.) and Pete Spaulding (Lafayette, Ind.) are in third place, sharing 19 points with Great Britain's Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes and Iker Martinez de Lizarduy and Xabier Fernandez from Spain.

Impressive Show in Disabled Sailing Fleets.

Paralympic sailing at this event is at its finest ever, with the fleets having grown significantly over the years and, like the Olympic classes, hosting top talent from around the world.

'The coaching is getting better, the technical equipment is getting better, and the Paralympic sailors are preparing better,' said Danny McCoy, the international class president of the singlehanded 2.4mR class, which has 25 boats competing here. The 2.4mRs turn heads, because the entire body of the skipper 'disappears' below the eight-inch freeboard and only his head is showing above the combing. 'It looks like the 12-Meter class boats of America's Cup fame, but one-fifth the size (14 feet long) and the steering is by hand (using a tiller) or by the feet (using pedals).'

After today's three races, Sweden's Stellan Berlin is tied in points with Great Britain's Megan Pascoe, followed by Great Britain's Helena Lucas in third. Berlin, a world champion, is not disabled, but McCoy explained that organizers did not prohibit able-bodied participants because the class typically does not, which is why up to 120 of them will show up at world championships. 'It's the only class in the world that embraces everyone -- women children, old, young, disabled, able-bodied -- and can be sailed easily by all of them,' said McCoy.

Being equal on the water, even with physical limits, is what draws disabled athletes to sailing, and the other two Paralympic classes -- the Sonar and SKUD-18 -- deliver fully on the concept, especially when classifications for the sailors are applied. Disabled sailors are classified by number, from one to seven according to the degree of their disability (highest to lowest). The total classification for any Sonar competing in the Paralympics must be 14. For the SKUD-18s, at least one of the two-person team must be classified as a number one, and one sailor must be a female.

'It plays out that most of the number one [sailors] are skippers on the SKUDs,' said Karen Mitchell (Deerfield Beach, Fla.), who with JP Creignou (St. Petersburg, Fla.) holds on to second place overall after three races today, behind a second U.S. team of Scott Whitman (Brick, N.J.) and Julia Dorsett (Boca Raton, Fla.), 'because we're paraplegics or quadriplegics and don't have the upper body strength to pull on lines in the front of the boat.' Mitchell's crew, Creignou, is blind and classified as a number seven. In 2006, he won the ISAF Blind World Championship and he is a Paralympic bronze medalist in the Sonar class.

Though the SKUD-18 is similar in design to the speed-hungry skiff called the 49er, it has a heavy bulb keel that keeps it from skipping across the water like its Olympic counterpart. Mitchell and her fellow sailors are testing and tweaking gear that is allowed to be modified on a boat that has only been available to sailors since June of 2006. It will make its Paralympic debut in 2008.

www.RolexMiamiOCR.org
www.ussailing.org

US SAILING's Rolex Miami OCR Top-Three Results (Provisional) Day 3

Finn (49 boats) -- 7 races
1. Peer Moberg (NOR), 8-[9]-2-6-1-5-4, 26
2. Jonas Hoegh-Christensen (DEN), 10-3-4-5-[11]-3-1, 26
3. Dan Slater (NZL), 3-8-3-2-8-[12]-5, 29

49er (47 boats) -- 7 races
1. Stevie Morrison/ Ben Rhodes (GBR), 1-6-3-1-1-7, [25/BFD], 19
2. Iker Martinez de Lizarduy/ Xabier Fernadez (ESP), 1-6-[12]-1-2-3-6, 19
3. Morgan Larson/ Pete Spaulding (USA), 4-7-[25/DNF]-2-1-4-1, 19

470 Men's (31 boats) -- 6 races
1. Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield (GBR), 2-1-4-[11]-6-2, 15
2. Gustavo Martinez/Dimas Wood (ESP), 4-3-[13]-3-10-1, 21
3. Gideon Kliger/Udi Gal (ISR), 16-[32/OCS]-3-2-2-9, 32

470 Women's (18 boats) -- 7 races
1. Marcelien de Koning/Lobke Berkhout (NED), 1-1-1-8-5-2-[13], 18
2. Erin Maxwell/Isabelle Kinsolving (Norwalk, Conn./New York, N.Y., USA), 3-4-[11]-3-2-7-1, 20
3. Giulia Conti/Giovanna Micol (ITA), 5-3-2-[7]-4-4-3, 21

Laser (69 boats) -- 6 races
1. Michael Blackburn (AUS), 2-[6]-1-3-5-2, 13
2. Tom Slingsby (AUS), 2-1-7-8-2-[12], 20
2. Matias Del Solar (CHI), 6-2-[17]-6-4-2, 20

Laser Radial (69 boats) -- 6 races
1. Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla., USA), 1-1-[36-DSQ]-3-1-4, 10
2. Tania Elias Calles (MEX), 4-5-4-[10]-1-2, 16
3. Karin Soderstrom (SWE), 2-2-[10]-4-2-8, 18

RS:X Men (44 boats) -- 5 races
1. Samual Launay (FRA), [45/