CampbellSailing.com

CISA Clinic 2010 a Success as reported by Rich Roberts

April 12th, 2010 in General.

April 11, 2010Â
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Never a bad day of sailing at the CISA Clinic
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LONG BEACH, Calif.
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The sun never shined and the sea was lumpy despite a wind too light for whitecaps, but did that ruin anyone’s day for the windup of the California International Sailing Association’s 33rd annual Advanced Racing Clinic at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club?
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Certainly not that of a couple of talented girls, Georgie Ryan and crew Haley Kirk, who sailed to first place in the upgrade International 420 fleet Sunday when school was out and the clinic was all racing.
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Ryan, from San Diego, and Kirk, from Long Beach, won two of the four races and outsailed all the boys in the fleet—including their brothers Judge and Korbin, who may never stop hearing about it.
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The girls actually tied for first on 10 points with Judge Ryan and crew Willie McBride but beat them on a tiebreaker, two firsts to one.
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Two of the other winners were from out of state: John Wallace of St. Petersburg, Fla., in Lasers and Drew Shea of Wilmette, Ill., in Radials.
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Altogether there were 104 boys and girls ages 14 to 18 from 14 states spanning Hawaii to the East Coast.
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Andrew Campbell, the clinic’s executive director from San Diego who will soon dive full-bore into his own Star class campaign for the 2012 Olympics, said as he drove his chase boat into the harbor amid exhausted young sailors that the four days of intense teaching and training was successful.Â
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“Everybody’s pretty tired,” he said, looking around. “That’s part of our job … to make sure everybody’s as tired as they can be at the end of the week. We had the best coaching staff we’d ever had, and they pushed the kids hard. We have to keep raising the bar to keep our sailors competitive with the rest of the world.”
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The staff was composed of 2008 Olympic silver medalist Zach Railey, two-time Olympic bronze medalist Charlie McKee, along with Brian Bissell, Brendan Casey, Genny Tulloch, Nigel Cochran, Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar, Zack Maxam, Brett Davis, David Wright, Cameron Biehl, Zander Kirkland, Brian Stanford, Graham Biehl, Skip Whyte, Molly Vandemoer and Peter Alarie. Virtually all have done Olympic campaigns and trained others to winning Olympic medals.
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Earlier practice days found good conditions, but Sunday was made more difficult than usual because the breeze came not from the normal southwest direction across the breakwater four miles off the beach but did an end run around the wall, leaving most of the Long Beach outer harbor unprotected.
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Another lesson learned: learn how to adapt when conditions stop being “normal.”
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CISA, founded in 1971, supports amateur sailors by providing travel grants for regional, national and international competition and also funds local sailing programs and racing clinics.
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The CISA Advanced Racing Clinic is sponsored by Atlantis WeatherGear, Kaenon Polarized sunglasses, Laser Performance, Gill Sailing Gear and Apparel and North Sails. Â
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Unlike other nations, the U.S. has no federally supported assistance programs for its amateur sportsmen or for the development of young talent. CISA, a 501(c) 3 organization, relies on contributions of corporations and individuals to provide support of amateur sailors. Because it is non-profit and tax-exempt, all contributions are tax deductible.

Photos from the clinic at www.JacquelineSchmitzPhotography.com

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