Charlie Ogletree Backs the Cats

by Des Ryan on 21 Nov 2007 For Johnny Lovell and Charlie Ogletree, their focused campaign toward the US Olympic Trials in the Tornado for the past several months paid off.

The pair will represent the US for the fourth time in a row in the multihull sailing discipline, the Tornado. At forty, Lovell and Ogletree had no intention of doing another Olympic campaign.

When interviewed at last week’s 2007 Ronstan A Cat World Championships in Islamorada, Florida, Ogletree confirmed, 'either way, it was our last campaign.' Ogletree was alluding to the ISAF Council’s vote to determine which ten events to recommend to the International Olympic Committee for inclusion at the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition.

After months of speculation on the part of sailors, MNA’s, class officials and the media as to which events would be included, the historic and close vote took place and it was determined that the multihull sailing discipline would be the one existing discipline that would be eliminated from the sailing lineup in 2012, subject to confirmation by the International Olympic Committee.

While Ogletree was planning his retirement from the Olympic campaign trail following his fourth go at a medal, the Council decision affected him. At the end of the career, Ogletree was hoping to close up shop by selling off his team’s equipment.

Come August he’ll 'have a ton of equipment' and almost no market in which to sell it. He was looking forward to coaching young and talented teams such as the pair of Olympic aspirants that he and Lovell had teamed up with as part of their pre-Trials T-Squared program.

Ogletree’s reaction to the ISAF vote – 'ISAF should look at what is representative of the sport of sailing and then look at the boats. There should be singlehanded events, skiff events, keelboat events and multihull events. ISAF missed the boat. They should have eliminated one of the disciplines that is duplicated.'

Ogletree and other multihull sailors in the US saw the writing on the wall earlier this year after US Sailing’s submission to ISAF did not include the multihull discipline. After much hue and cry from multihull sailors, the US retracted its initial submission. Said Ogletree, 'this year’s submission included the multihulls, and did not include the men’s heavyweight dinghy. But final instructions were to protect the keelboat disciplines at all costs.' The rumblings at the A Cat Worlds and elsewhere in the sailing community is that by eliminating the multihull discipline from the Olympics, ISAF is eliminating a discipline practiced by approximately 20% of sailors worldwide. Multihull sailors have launched an 'Allow the multihull to compete in the Olympics' petition at www.ipetitions.com/petition/multihullinolympics/.

Other than coaching multihull sailors, Ogletree has a long list of things that he aspires to do once his focus shifts away from the Olympics. A Cat sailing ranks high on his list. According to Ogletree, 'There are not many boats that are better.'

He took a crash course in sailing A’s before the 2002 Worlds. After quite a bit of practice, he was the only American among the top five finishers at the World Championships. As happened this year, his A Cat sailing took a back seat to his Olympic campaign.

While his fleet mates Pete Melvin, Pease and Jay Glaser, Jeremy Laundergan and Howie Hamlin zipped around inside the Long Beach breakwater and contributed to taking A Cat hull and sail designs to another level, Charlie resorted to using the base package that the top guys are using.

His consolation? 'Well, I’m glad to be here as a Trials winner.' (Ogletree took home a sixth place finish at the 2007 Ronstan A Cat World Championships in the company of multihull world and Olympic champions).

Another area of sailing in which Ogletree has sat on the sidelines while college buddies and roommates, such as Terry Hutchinson, have made quite a name for themselves is America’s Cup sailing. Ogletree wanted to get involved in an American’s Cup campaign that would have conflicted with his Olympic plans. 'You can’t do both,' said Ogletree. His consolation? A Silver Medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

Lovell and Ogletree’s last push toward the Olympics will include some very intense training for the 2008 Tornado World Championships and the Olympics.

Their training partners will be Mitch Booth and Pim Neuhausen (NED), Enrique Figueroa and Jorge Hernandez (PUR), and Jojo Polgar and Florian Spaetzle (GER). The Germans and the Puerto Ricans trained with Lovell and Ogletree for the three weeks leading up to the US Trials and contributed to the team’s one point victory over Robbie Daniel and Hunter Stunzi.

Whether it’s in a multihull or a monohull, Ogletree will continue to make sailing headlines.