U.S. Disabled Sailing Championship - Paralympic Hopefuls Turnout

by Jake Fish on 2 Dec 2010
.S. Disabled Sailing Championship - The 2010 US SAILING National Championship season comes to a conclusion this weekend in St. Petersburg, Fla. The true spirit of competitive sailing will be on display at the USDSC, hosted by the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, for three days of racing on Tampa Bay this Friday through Sunday (Dec. 3-5). The U.S. Disabled Sailing Championship is the only sailing national championship for disabled sailors. This championship is one of two qualifying events for the 2011 US SAILING Team AlphaGraphics’ Paralympic classes.

A total of 24 boats and 39 sailors from the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Ireland will be on hand to race in one of three Paralympic classes: 2.4mR (singlehanded), SKUD-18 (doublehanded), and Sonar (triplehanded). The 2012 Paralympic Regatta will take place August 29-September 9, 2012 in Weymouth/Portland, England.

In the 2.4mR class, each sailor must have a valid classification rating of 1-7 in order to compete. The Sonar fleet is sailed with three disabled sailors. To be eligible for the 2011 USSTAG, the Sonar team may not exceed 14 classification points total. In the SKUD-18 class, per team one sailor must be severely disabled (classification rating of a 1 or 2) and the other sailor must have any valid classification rating (1-7). At least one of the team members must be a female.

Fifteen skippers will race in the 2.4mR division for the Judd Goldman Trophy. Returning to the singlehanded fleet is the defending 2009 Champion Charles Rosenfield (pictured - Woodstock, Conn.), a member of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG). Rosenfield will be challenged by a number of standout 2.4mR sailors, including 2008 Paralympic Bronze Medalist John Ruf (Pewaukee, Wis.), an USSTAG athlete who won the 2009 2.4mR World Championship. Last year’s triplehanded division champion Roger Cleworth (Lithia, Fla.) will be competing in the singlehanded division this year.

Cleworth has won the singlehanded division at the USDSC in 2006 and 2002. The 2007 USDSC singlehanded winner and USSTAG athlete Mark LeBlanc (New Orleans, La.) will be in the hunt. LeBlanc’s resume includes a win at the 2008 2.4mR U.S. National Championship. Helena Lucas (Southampton, Hampshire GBR) represented Great Britain at the 2008 Paralympic Games. She won silver at the IFDS 2.4mR World Championships in 2006 and bronze in 2009. Paul Tingley (Halifax, Nova Scotia CAN) and Bruce Millar (Richmond, British Columbia CAN) from the Canadian Sailing Team will also be competing in the 2.4mR division.

The small but elite SKUD-18 fleet features three outstanding teams in competition for the Chandler Hovey Trophy. The three of the teams are members of USSTAG. Defending SKUD-18 champion Jen French (St. Petersburg, Fla.) will race in the doublehanded fleet with Jean-Paul Creignou (St. Petersburg, Fla.). She is a seven-time winner of the Milan-Gruson Award for the top disabled female skipper.

The team of Scott Whitman (Brick, N.J.) and Julia Dorsett (Westchester, Pa.) won back-to-back SKUD-18 championships at US SAILING’s Rolex Miami OCR in 2010 and 2009. Sarah Everhart-Skeels (Tiverton, R.I.) and Bob Jones (Issaquah, Wash.) round out the fleet. Everhart-Skeels and Jones finished fourth at the 2009 Rolex Miami OCR in the SKUD-18 event.

Six triplehanded teams will race in Sonars for Gene Hinkel Trophy. This talented fleet includes the USSTAG team of skipper Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.), a 2008 U.S. Paralympian and 2009 Skandia Sail for Gold Champion, his crew Brad Kendall (Tampa, Fla.) and Hugh Freund (S. Freeport, Me.). Doerr won the 2008 USDSC triplehanded division. He was the U.S. Olympic Committee Paralympic Athlete of the Year for sailing in 2006.

Paul Callahan (Cape Coral, Fla.) will be joined by crewmates Tom Brown (Castine, Me.) and Bradley Johnson (Pompano Beach, Fla.). An USSTAG athlete, Callahan won the silver medal in the Sonar division at the 2009 Rolex Miami OCR. Sonar veteran Bert Foster (Wayzata, Minn.) along with teammates Mike Hersey (Hyannis, Mass.) and David Burdette (Lutherville, Md.) will be in pursuit of the championship.

Andrew Fisher (Greenwich, Conn.) and crewmates Maureen McKinnon-Tucker (Marblehead, Mass.), a 2008 Paralympic Gold Medalist, and Gerard Tiernan (Falmouth, Me.) will join forces to make a run for the title. Other skippers hoping to challenge for the title are international sailors John Robertson (Portland, Dorsett GBR) and John Twomey (Kinsale, County Cork IRL).

Eight races are planned per division with a minimum of three races needed to constitute a complete regatta. There will be an on-the-water racing clinic for the competitors on Thursday, Dec. 2. The U.S. Disabled Sailing Championship will be run in conjunction with the America’s Disabled Open. The racing will be conducted on Tampa Bay, east of the St. Petersburg Municipal Pier.

For results, standings, daily reports, and photos, please visit the event web site.

Managed by US SAILING, the event is open to any sailor with a physical disability. Participants have included quadriplegics, paraplegics and amputees, as well as individuals with multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, polio and ALS. Several past participants of this championship have gone on to compete in the Paralympic Games, including 2008 Paralympic Gold Medalist and two-time USDSC Singlehanded Champion (2005, 2004), the late Nick Scandone. Many of this year’s participants have Paralympic ambitions.

Since the 1980s, US SAILING has actively supported sailboat racing among physically challenged sailors. The inaugural championship, then called the Independence Cup, took place in 1990 and the event was held in conjunction with the North American Challenge Cup by the Chicago Yacht Club. Beginning in 2008, the U.S. Disabled Sailing Championship has been hosted by different sailing organizations around the country to expand awareness of disabled sailing and encourage disabled individuals to take up the sport.

http://www.ussailing.org