US Olympic-Paralympic trial East Coast winners

by Cynthia Goss, US SAILING on 15 Oct 2007 After a 16-race series off Aquidneck Island, in shifty winds that ranged from light and fluky to sustained 18 knots and surfable seas, winners in five classes have been named to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams and are slated to represent the United States at the 2008 Games in China.

Hosted by the Rhode Island Sailing Foundation, working with Sail Newport, New York Yacht Club, and Ida Lewis Yacht Club, the nine-day regatta drew 87 competitors from throughout the country.

Winners of the largest classes racing at the East Coast Trials were Andrew Campbell (San Diego, Calif.) in the 33-boat Laser class and Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.) in the 22-boat Laser Radial fleet.

Competition in the Laser class kept race-watchers on the edge of their seats. Four-time collegiate All-American Clay Johnson (Toms River, N.J.), who finished third, captured an early lead in the regatta. But Brad Funk (Plantation, Fla.) rose to that position on the second day of racing, soon to be joined by Andrew Campbell (San Diego, Calif.). But as Funk and Campbell sailed further from the fleet in the point standings, the competition between the two of them only intensified as they flip-flopped as class leaders.

Campbell sailed into the final day with a five-point edge, which was only erased when Funk won Race 15 to once again reverse the leading order. Campbell's second in the last race and Funk's third put these two rivals into a points tie that was taken into the protest room over an altercation at the weather mark.

The protest was disallowed, and Campbell won the Laser berth on a tie-breaker. But the long round of applause that Campbell got at the awards ceremony and the standing ovation that Funk received were telling signs of what this contest had become. These Laser peers were clearly honoring two Herculean talents who had given it everything they had—and essentially ended up even.

The Laser Radial class was decided before the start of the final race. Anna Tunnicliffe—ranked number one in her class in the ISAF World Rankings—won the opening race of the regatta and then proceeded to build a points edge over her closest opponent, Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.), which she never relinquished. Heading to the starting line today, both sailors were carrying a third place as their worst race. With a four-point lead going into the final day, Tunnicliffe only needed to finish third or better to seal the class win.

After an altercation at the start in Race 15, Tunnicliffe did penalty turns for insurance and ducked the fleet on port tack after the start. But the move put her in good position in relation to the wind patterns to work back to the top of the class; she won the race by a strong margin, with Railey second. With the class win decided, Tunnicliffe and Railey sailed off the course and did not compete in the last race.

The competition for the Laser Radial berth had escalated into a two-boat battle, and after regatta's end, Tunnicliffe commended the talented opponent she has faced in many Laser Radial events: 'If Paige wasn’t as good a sailor as she is, I would not be where I am now … She is a great sailor, and it was a tough battle.' Sarah Lihan (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) captured third.

The Sonar team of Rick Doerr, Tim Angle, and Bill Donohue (Clifton, N.J./Marblehead, Mass./Brick, N.J.) captured this triple handed Paralympic class by four points. Victory aside, as Doerr surveyed the past nine days at regatta's end, he depicted a long and sometimes rugged road to first place. After taking three bullets in the first four races, Doerr and his crew were shaping up to be the odds-on favorite—but that trend did not continue.

Back-of-the-fleet finishes and tough competition from second-place Paul Callahan (Newport, R.I./Cape Coral, Fla.), racing with Roger Cleworth and Tom Brown (Lithia, Fla./Northeast Harbor, Maine), and Albert Foster (Wayzata, Minn.), racing with David Burdette and Jim Thweatt (Lutherville, Md./W. Sacramento, Calif.), ensued. The long, high-stakes regatta was also developing into a strategic mind game for Doerr and his crew: 'It's a long regatta—and it was easy to get torn between protecting your lead, and sailing your own race.'

Doerr found the tough battle to be good preparation for the international arena of the Paralympic Games: 'The strong competition here in the U.S. has only pushed us to another level.'

Competition for the 2.4mR berth developed into the closest points situation of the East Coast classes. John Ruf (Pewaukee, Wisc.) and Mark LeBlanc (New Orleans, La.) came off the water tied in points today, with Ruf capturing the berth in this single-handed Paralympic class on a tie-breaker. He sailed strong in the second half of the regatta, winning Race 10 and proceeding to take all bullets in the next three races. Finishes of 2-2 for Ruf on the final day moved him from second overall and into the lead.

2.4mR sailor Mark Bryant (Estero, Fla.) finished third, only one point behind the winner. These three Paralympic sailors raced a lethally close contest: at different times during the regatta, each of them held the class lead and only one point separated the top three boats in the final tally.

The SKUD-18 class was also decided before the final race. Nick Scandone (Fountain Valley, Calif.) and Maureen McKinnon-Tucker (Marblehead, Mass.) had mathematically sewn up a victory before the last day of competition. Scandone, the 2005 US SAILING Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, and McKinnon-Tucker are a new pairing in this double handed class making its Paralympic debut in 2008—and one to be watched.

They were also silver medalists at last month's IFDS Disabled World Sailing Championships. SKUD sailors Scott Whitman and Julia Dorsett (Brick, N.J./West Chester, Penn.) won the final two races to move into second place, with Karen Mitchell and JP Creignou (Deerfield Beach, Fla./St. Petersburg, Fla.) taking third.

Six additional classes are vying for Olympic berths concurrently, in West Coast venues. The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will take place August 8–24; the Paralympic Games take place September 6–17, 2008. Both the Olympic and Paralympic regattas will be held in Qingdao, China, a coastal city located 430 miles east of Beijing.

FINAL RESULTS (Top 3 in class)

2.4mR (4 boats/after 16 races)
1. John Ruf (Pewaukee, Wisc.); [3], 3, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 2, 2: 30 points
2. Mark LeBlanc (New Orleans, La.); [4], 2, 1, 1, 3, 3, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 3, 3: 30 points
3. Mark Bryant (Estero, Fla.); 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 2, 1, 4, 2, [5/OCS], 4, 3, 2, 1, 1: 31 points

Laser (33 boats/after 16 races)
1. Andrew Campbell (San Diego, Calif.); 4, 4, 1, [20], 1, 1, 2, 5, 1, 2, 5, 1, 3, 5, 7, 2: 44 points
2. Brad Funk (Plantation, Fla.); 3, 2, 2, [9], 4, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 9, 5, 6, 1, 3: 44 points
3. Clay Johnson (Toms River, N.J.); 1, 1, 4, 15, 2, 8, 7, 25, [34/OCS], 3, 3, 3, 4, 1, 8, 1: 86 points

Laser Radial (22 boats/after 16 races)
1. Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.); 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 2, 1, 3, 1, [23/DNC]: 24 points
2. Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.); 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 1, 3, 1, 1, 3, 2, 2, [23/DNC]: 29 points
3. Sarah Lihan (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.); 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 6, 1, [11], 2, 2, 3, 9, 11, 1, 9, 1: 62 points

SKUD-18 (5 boats/after 16 races)
1. Nick Scandone/Maureen McKinnon-Tucker (Fountain Valley, Calif./Marblehead, Mass.); 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, [6/DNC], 6/DNC: 25 points
2. Scott Whitman/Julia Dorsett (Brick, N.J./West Chester, Penn.); 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 2, [6/DSQ], 1, 1: 34 points
3. Karen Mitchell/JP Creignou (Deerfield Beach, Fla./St. Petersburg, Fla.); 1, 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 3, 1, [6/DSQ], 2, 4: 36 points

Sonar (6 boats/after 16 races)
1. Rick Doerr/Tim Angle/Bill Donohue (Clifton, N.J./Marblehead, Mass./Brick, N.J.); 1, 3, 1, 1, [7/DSQ], 3, 2, 4, 4, 2, 1,