Ogletree & Lovell USA Tornado's to 4th Olympics

by Lynn Fitzpatrick on 18 Oct 2007 Charlie Ogletree and John Lovell on the Advanced Equities I racing team nailed the last two races of the U.S. Sailing Olympic Trials for the Tornado Class today, earning the right to represent the USA at the sailing Olympics for a fourth time. Racing next year in Qingdao, China, at the Summer Olympic Games will follow the previous regattas in Savannah, Sydney and Athens. They won Silver in Athens. Next year, they looking for Gold.

This is what Charlie had to say:

'This very long week has not been easy. People thought we were the favourites to win the Olympic slot. Hey, Johnny Lovell and I thought we were favourites but we didn't count on the tenacity and the boat speed displayed by Robbie Daniel and Hunter Stunzi. Two days ago they almost had us put away. With four races remaining, they only had to win one more race to clinch the Olympic berth That's when maturity and experience kicked in. We prevailed twice yesterday and then again today.'

'Pre start match races with Robbie and Hunter became a ritual this week and we won again this morning but our advantage was slight. The forecast was or a light to medium sea breeze increasing as the day wore on. In other words, steady boat speed conditions. These were Robbie's conditions. There was no room to be second. We had to beat him at his best.'

'We won the start but we didn't have full control and he was able to get clear and get to the favoured right side fairly early in the windward leg. We drag-raced him out to the right-hand corner of the course and then tacked and lee-bowed him all the way into the top mark to round just in front. We were even all down the run and then chose opposite leeward gates. We went right, he went left. This time the situation was reversed as he lee-bowed us on the starboard tack and then led us into the second windward mark. We split and chose opposite sides of the course for the second run but came back together at the leeward gate and he was still slightly ahead.'

'That's where we got a lucky break, one of the few we got this week. Robbie had a knot in his spinnaker halyard and couldn't make a full take down. His spinnaker was still flying as he came on the wind and it took him 40 seconds or so to get it under control. The next time we crossed tacks we had an eight boat-length lead that we never relinquished.'


'We were still alive with one race remaining. It was Robbie's regatta to lose and suddenly all the pressure was on him. We'd had some good pre start match races this week but this time we truly hammered our opponents. When we broke off our manoeuvring to return to the line, we lined up for the committee boat. Robbie, up on our hip, had nowhere to go as we wiped him off on the committee boat, forcing him to tack away and then jibe back before starting. We jumped out to a big lead while he was about fourth at the weather mark. He fought back to finish second but the race was ours.'

'Robbie and Hunter deserve congratulations. They pushed us hard and showed us we need to work a little on our medium wind boat speed. The other thing we learned is that it's good to be old and long in the tooth. Coming at them hard in 16 races put them under pressure and it began to show at the end. We'll be taking a break to reflect on this week but the 2008 World Championships in Tauranga, New Zealand are only a few months away. We've still got a long road to Qingdao.'