Laser sailor Andrew Campbell prepares for Olympic Trials

by Andrew Campbell on 4 Oct 2007 Andrew Campbell reports - With four weeks of solid training completed here in Middletown, Rhode Island, I’ll be laying fairly low this last week before our trials starts. All the sailing that could have been done, has been done.

The techniques have been tried and tested. Endurance has been improved in the gym and on the water. Boat-on-boat scenarios have been practiced ad nausea. Old and worn parts and lines have been replaced with new ones. The anticipated rest of the next few days will be more helpful than trying to learn new tricks.

The system of Olympic Trials promotes a funny atmosphere at the training site in the weeks leading up to the selection regatta.

Americans who have depended so heavily on each other as training partners, roommates, confidants all of a sudden find themselves necessarily isolated and awkwardly independent of each other while they live and practice. Foreign training partners are brought in and quiet alliances are bonded between groups of two, three and four boats that can be seen sailing together all across the expected square mile racecourse area.

Full-time campaigners are shunned by their part-time counterparts who are on site only for the final weeks leading into the regatta, not wanting to give them the benefit of larger training groups. And reciprocally the sailors with training partners make their sessions exclusive from outsiders to ensure self-interested benefit. Aside from waving to one and other, and at times less than that, former friendships are apparently put on hold for the month in attempts to abandon any emotional connection that might only get in the way during the impending regatta.

As Laser sailors, we’re generally comfortable with isolation. Anna Tunnicliffe calls it a 'disease' that usually only effects the radials at their events, and we’re both not surprised to see it happening here before the regatta, silly as it may be. I certainly do miss the team-focused atmosphere that most sailing demands. College sailing, team racing, and big boat racing gladly avoid the awkward isolationism. Not to say that they are immune from it, look at the America’s Cup. However, the teams at that level are made of fifty or a hundred people instead of two or three.

Sailing conditions have been fantastic overall, nothing like China will be, but fantastic. Of the 30 days that we have sailed here about six have been dying northerlies of 7-15 knots, four have been variable light easterlies of 3-10 knots, and the other twenty have been from the south and west varying from 8 to 25 knots of wind. The swell has been as high as four feet and at other times flat as a lake.

The current varies, but can be quite strong on the edges of the Sakonnet river. The temperature is starting to meander into the fifties at night and sixties during the day, and with the official beginning of fall last week, the trees are desperately hanging on to their drying leaves.

The new boats for the regatta arrived this weekend from the Vanguard factory. They sit in the sun getting blasted by sand awaiting the tent to be set up for the regatta shortly. A water truck arrived yesterday as well with a large tank for hosing our boats off, a welcomed change. However, I’m pretty sure that they took the last of our porto-potties away so I’m not really sure how that will go the rest of the week (Sun shower, quite warm coming in handy pictured below).

Before we get too hot into the Olympic Trials reports this coming week, I wanted to get a quick thank you out to some critical players this month in my campaign. My former Georgetown teammates Ed DuMoulin, Nick Deane and Jackie Schmitz all took a couple of days out of their busy schedules to come out on the water and run the power boat, take pictures, film, and get generally beat up in an inflatable off coastal Rhode Island.

The Island Heights Yacht Club and the Kavanaugh Family have been gracious enough to lend us their boats for the last few weeks, and indeed they are being used plenty and have been an incredible asset to have. Matias Del Solar came in from Michigan before heading back to Chile, and was a huge help on the water. Dave Wright from Toronto, a former guest editor on CampbellSailing.com, has been here all month and not only pushed me hard on the water but also in the gym.

My coach Bill Ward will arrive this week for the regatta taking time out from his responsibilities at St Mary’s College in Maryland. And Ken Ward and Ryan Costello will be helping with website updates during the trials. We are anticipating nearly live updates on this website as well as at GeorgetownSailing.org.