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BFD in race 2 at Bacardi Cup
March 9th, 2010 in General.
Thankfully longtime Star crew Chris Rogers was here this weekend without a skipper so I could have somebody to sail with after Brad decided he would be better spending the week with the doctors. We had two starts today, the second of which went off under the threat of black flag. Usually this means line sag should be taken advantage of. Unfortunately I took a little too much advantage of the sag and was one of about 12 boats called OCS and given a starting penalty and removed at the windward mark. Adding insult to injury, Chris and I capitalized on great speed with our light air jib trading tacks with Peter Bromby and Magnus Liljedahl as we rounded the first mark overlapped with the first place boat. We’ll call it a moral victory? More unfortunately all the SDYC guys including us, Reynolds and Szabo were all on the BFD list. Sounds like a conspiracy theory brewing? We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to redeem ourselves.
Bacardi Cup Day 1
March 8th, 2010 in General.
After a week of great north breeze, the Miami heat showed up again today killing the northerly and making conditions perfect for a light seabreeze. We waited on shore an extra hour and then ghosted out into a 4-6 knot easterly. The sailing was just beautiful all things considered, but a 20 degree lefty in the middle of the first two-mile beat spoiled our day. About ten boats were caught in the black flag starting penalty but even so we rounded well into the 50s after fighting our way back from the right side. We had intended to go right all along so I can’t beat myself up too much. And we had really nice pace around the course so we were able to make up nice gains and have a respectable finish in 20th place.
The real unfortunate part of the day was Brad’s back deteriorating as the day went on. He had spent yesterday rigging while I was racing the 32. But when we got to the boat today his back had tightened up so much that he could barely fit under the boom in tacks. Luckily it wasn’t too windy so he wasn’t over strained but by the end of the day Brad could barely walk without wincing in pain. So as I write we’re sitting at the doctor waiting for an MRI to hopefully confirm that it’s just a temporary problem demanding only rest and not actions more drastic. Meanwhile we’re scouring the boatpark for a replacement crew for the week. We’ll try to keep you updated at CampbellSailing.com.
Miami Grand Prix down Bacardi Cup to go…
March 7th, 2010 in General.
Quickly, thanks to the discussion and comments last week I think it is valuable to have a discussion about the subject raised by Mr. Hayes’ comments regarding professionals in the sport of sailing. I look forward to not only reading his book but having more dialogue with him and others on the subject. To read the article go to www.CampbellSailing.com.
Miami provided a week of fabulous sailing this week starting with a smoking windy southerly on Tuesday and another 18-25 knot westerly for practice on Wedneday. Any time you can sail 17.5 knots in any boat you’re having a good day. Ninkasi and the other Melges 32s were on fire this week off South Beach. The four days of the regatta were equally as spectacular albeit a bit cool with 10-20 knot northerlies holding for the entire weekend until we were coming in he harbor today when the breeze finally started it’s regular swing into the east and southeast. We had an up and down day to finish out series with a 3rd and a throwout today to finish 8th overall in the fleet of 23 boats. We had some potential to move up the board but didn’t catch the right breaks in the final race to make that push. We did however find some ellusivd upwind speed that we haven’t had regularly and combined with good starts quite often found ourselves in the hunt. Our downwind speed lacked this event hurting us in the end, but that will be our focus for the season looking toward the worlds in San Francisco in September.
It’s a quick turnaround for me. First race of the Bacardi Cup starts at 1155 tomorrow inside Biscayne Bay so I’ve moved out of the hotel with the team and onto My crew Brad’s couch for the week. I’m really looking forward to be racing the Star again after just more than a month’s recovery from the Worlds in Rio. Lots of tuning numbers to tune out as we will be racing a different chartered boat here in Miami, but with a new jib and a bit of feel on the helm we should be able to make a splash this week.
More to come from Miami this week at www.CampbellSailing.com and results at www.MiamiSailingWeek.com
“Frankly, pros have no place in the vast majority of sailing…”
March 1st, 2010 in General.
An interesting interview coming from a US Sailing interview with author Nicholas Hayes led off Scuttlebutt today. I’m not sure where Mr. Hayes get’s off with his strong comments in such a public forum. For a sailor trying to promote and grow the sport, it’s a little tough to understand his negativity toward professionalism in sailing. Here are his comments:
US SAILING: Amateurs often compete against professionals… Some believe this is great for the sport. What is your take?
Nicholas Hayes: …I don’t know many amateurs who think it is great. (I know, snarky… but true.)
Seriously, let’s start here: sailing is only a sport when sailors race. It is better defined as time spent on the water with family or friends. Racing is just one format, and it represents about 20% of sailing (in terms of time.)
Secondly, I like to race, and I like to take home a flag when I do… but the majority of sailors know that a race is meaningless except in the friendships that it secures and the memories that it makes. This perspective is shared by 99% of sailors, and applies to 99% of starts. Frankly, pros have no place in the vast majority of sailing as it is done today, and I don’t see that changing much.
I go to lengths in the book to explain how sailing as a profession doesn’t sync well with sailing as a pastime. I’ve come to conclude that if someone is able to convince someone else to finance their fun, so be it… but the progress in technique or skill isn’t worth the costs in the whole. I hope your readers will consider the evidence that I present and decide for themselves.
I’ll concede that I have not read his book, but after reading these paragraphs I’m quite skeptical. Unfortunately his interview response probably hits more people than he thinks who will read only the interview and not consider the evidence in order to decide for themselves. While I understand Mr. Hayes is writing to grow the entire concept of “sailing” from cruising on the lake in your sunfish all the way to the America’s Cup, I’m not sure that his comment “a race is meaningless except in the friendships that it secures and the memories that it makes,” helps to make his point. I regret that Mr. Hayes fails to understand the camaraderie and respect between professionals and amateurs alike at the highest echelons of any sport, including sailing. A match race between two boats of professionals will have the same level of respect for the rules and each other as a match race between two amateur squads. Professionalism and elite amateurism as in the Olympic arena provides a measuring point to which other racing sailors might aspire.
By disconnecting that elite group of sailors from what Mr. Hayes calls “the 99%,” he fails to recognize the path by which elite sailors get to the top. There are very few professional sailors who did not start at a basic level of the sport or even a more casual form of sailing. As sailors improve through the ranks of any aspect of the sport whether it be match, team, fleet, distance, inshore, monohull, multihull, skiff or foil racing they always look to the higher level sailors to learn and practice techniques. Youth sailors look up to professional and Olympic sailors in addition to their parents and peers to show them the way forward in the sport.
I appreciate Mr. Hayes comment that “It’s hard to imagine a grandma, son and grandson all playing soccer together, but it’s easy to find them playing together on a sailboat.” I grew up racing with my parents and my grandparents, but I think my grandmothers would be the first ones to tell you that if I only raced against them until I was 23 years old I might not have been able to represent them at the Olympic Games. More than 1% of sailors recognize the need to compete against the best to become better. Pros make racing better. Pros make sailors better. If a person wants to improve himself or herself, how can you possibly make an argument against that? If they believe that the best way to continue improving in the sport is to enlist help from a professional, it is absurd to tell them they should not. If a sailor wants to improve himself or herself they must turn to someone with more experience and often more skill. At some point when the sailor wants to improve steadily he or she will need to turn to a professional for advice.
Why on earth would Mr. Hayes argue against “progress in technique or skill?” That single sentence is seemingly counter-productive to the entire goal of US Sailing. He says it isn’t worth the costs? What costs does he refer to? Is there some moral problem the Mr. Hayes sees in a professional attitude toward sport or does he simply refer to the dollars handed between individuals in return for advice and instruction? Does he think that his stake as a professional writer takes away from his children’s potential to read and write themselves? Does his position as a professional writer not influence amateur writers in a positive way?
This probably underlines my most important rebuttal to Mr. Hayes’ interview response: if professionalism is disconnected from 99% of sailors then it will be to the detriment of sailing. Amateurs need professionals just as much as professionals need amateurs. Adult basketball players from the local YMCA are not hurt by buying a ticket to the Wizards NBA game. In fact they’re probably better off if they were looking to learn something about the game. If an adult wants to hire a coach to improve, then let him. That doesn’t hurt anybody, it only improves the level of sailing. Sailing is one of the best examples of a sport where professionals can compete alongside amateurs on a regular basis. Why not use the opportunity to learn from each other and improve each other? I look forward to reading Mr. Hayes book and gaining an understanding of one perspective on my favorite sport.
Please visit www.CampbellSailing.com for more.
On the Road, Again.
March 1st, 2010 in Travel, General.
The snow is melting slowly off the DC streets, just in time for me to hustle back to the airport and head out for the next event: Melges 32 sailing with Team Ninkasi at the 2010 Acura Miami Race Week immediately followed by Bacardi Cup in the Star boat.
It’s be hectic couple of months to start the year. With the trip to Rio seeming distant, I will have been to Rio for the Worlds, Miami for Rolex OCR, an Audi Melges 20 event and Newport Harbor YC for a speaking event. Next week Acura and Bacardi are back in Miami, then I’ll be home for just more than a week before heading west again to Colorado Springs for a USSTAG training camp, immediately followed by Congressional Cup.
The schedule is starting to fill up nicely, but there’s always more racing on the horizon.
Can Sports Save the World? - Thoughts before Vancouver
February 5th, 2010 in General.
On January 15th, The Atlantic Monthly ran an article online by author Adam Hofstetter titled “Can Sports Save the World?” He demonstrated through a number of cases that Sports cannot save the world, starting with the recent attack on the Togo soccer squad as they prepared to take on Angola in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Hofstetter shows evidence why people continue to “let our hopes obscure reality,” that people are fooled into thinking Sports can somehow cool tensions between nations. Regardless of the “Ping-pong” diplomacy and other idealized political friendships played out through sport, he makes his case against the idea of sports promoting peace noting the Munich massacre, the 1969 Honduras-El Salvador Soccer War, the delaying of a Chad v. Sudan soccer match, the cancelation of the 1916 Olympics among others. His complete article is linked here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001u/can-sports-save-the-world
Where I respect his evidence and see his point I regret his cynicism. The truth is that “Sports” cannot save the world, but “Sportsmanship” can. The superficial idealism of politicizing a soccer match between the US and Cuba, or Turkey and Armenia, or Iran and Israel can only be turned into true social capital if the athletes grasp each other after the game in respect for fair play and sincere effort. When the president of the United States and Russia come face-to-face at the Olympics opening ceremonies, it means only that they have seen each other. The context of their Olympic meeting, does nothing to prevent an order of attack on a bordering country as we saw in Russia and South Ossetia in 2008. Sport did not succeed in promoting peace. Sport alone cannot succeed in promoting peace.
Only with Sportsmanship can Sport inspire citizens of enemy nations to progress towards peace. Sport brings out the passion of battle between athletes. When the athletes respect the effort and skill of the each other those passions are incredible for all to see. But, only when the athletes congratulate each other for one victory and vow to meet again for competition another day, that inspires all to see.
The Winter Olympics are set to begin next week in Vancouver. We will see the passion of the athletes, coaches, and fans will show through in their emotion as they compete. We will see joy, pride, anger, disappointment, and pain. The stress of the competitive environment guarantees those things. Only when athletes overcome those emotions does sport inspire peace.
There will be attempts to make political gain when athletes from enemy nations compete against one and other. The politicization of these events does nothing to promote peace. If, however, an inkling of sportsmanship sparks between those athletes, hope will spring from that moment.
Sport has nothing to do with peace except that they provide the platform for Sportsmanship. Mr. Hofstetter fails to recognize the power of Sportsmanship as perhaps one of humanity’s greatest catalysts for peace.
Newcomer of the Year - 2010 US Sailing Team Alphagraphics
February 2nd, 2010 in General.
Inaugural US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics Awards
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Marni Lane, marnilane@ussailing.org, 617-671-8332Olympic Sailing Program Presents Inaugural US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics Awards
Portsmouth, R.I. (January 23, 2010) –
The Olympic Sailing Program presented seven US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics Awards to the 2009 team members who achieved excellence in the following categories in 2009: Best Individual Performance, Best Team Performance, Best Performance by a Newcomer, Best Teammate, Most Improved Fitness and Commercial Award. The awards were presented at the first annual US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) Awards Banquet Friday evening in Miami, Florida, prior to US SAILING’s Rolex Miami OCR, the biggest Olympic and Paralympic class sailing event in North America.
“Our program and team culture are all about excellence and these awards were created to reward the team members who exemplify the work ethic we’re looking for,” said Dean Brenner (Wallingford, Conn.), the Chairman of the US Olympic Sailing Program.Charles M. Leighton Award for Outstanding Service – Charles Leighton (Middletown, R.I.)
This award is presented to the individual who has made a significant difference in the lives of the members of the US Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Program.Best Performance by a Newcomer – Andrew Campbell
(San Diego, Calif.)
This award is presented to the athlete who, over the previous twelve months, has begun Olympic or Paralympic Class competition for the first time, or switched to a new event, and achieved notable performance on the water.Commercial Award – Graham Biehl (San Diego, Calif.)
This award is presented to the athlete who has made an outstanding effort in support of the commercial and sponsorship activities of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics.Most Improved Fitness – (tie) Paige Railey
(Clearwater, Fla.) and Clay Johnson (Toms River, N.J.)
This award is given to the athlete who, over the previous twelve months, has made the most significant improvement to their physical fitness.Best Teammate – Stuart McNay (Boston, Mass.)
This award is given to the athlete who best exemplifies what it means to be a great teammate. This athlete has demonstrated commitment, flexibility, collaboration and generosity of spirit.Best Team Performance – Scott Whitman
(Brick, N.J.) and Julia Dorsett (West Chester, Pa./ Boca Raton, Fla.)
This award is given to the team who, over the previous twelve months, has produced the best overall performance on the water.Best Individual Performance – Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.)
This award is given to the athlete who, over the previous twelve months, has produced the best overall performance on the water by an individual.
Photo gallery: http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/Multimedia/Inaugural_USSTAG_Awards.htm
To learn more about the team and athletes’ accomplishments and achievements, as well as bios, photos and Meet the Team video interviews, please visit the US Sailing Teams web site at sailingteams.ussailing.org. Get the latest news and updates by becoming a fan of the team on Facebook and following them on Twitter.
About US SAILING and the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics
The US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) is managed by the United States Sailing Association (US SAILING), the national governing body for the sport of sailing and sailboat racing. The top boats in each Olympic and Paralympic class are selected annually to be members of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics. US SAILING supports these elite athletes with funding, coaching and training. The title sponsor of the team is AlphaGraphics; other sponsors include Rolex Watch USA, Atlantis WeatherGear, Sperry Top-Sider, LaserPerformance, Harken, Team McLube, Bow Down Training, New England Ropes and Group Experiential Learning. Founded in 1897 and headquartered in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, US SAILING is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. US SAILING offers training and education programs for instructors and race officials, supports a wide range of sailing organizations and communities, issues offshore rating certificates, and provides administration and oversight of competitive sailing across the country. For more information about US SAILING, please visit: www.ussailing.org. For more information about the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, please visit: http://sailingteams.ussailing.org. (End)
Worlds Interview with Scuttlebutt
January 25th, 2010 in Regattas, General.
Here’s a new interview regarding the Worlds at SailingScuttlebutt.com
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/10/0125/
11th Overall at 2010 Star World Championships
January 22nd, 2010 in General.
Yesterday capped off a tricky 2010 Star World Championships. From the first race of the regatta inside the confines of Rio’s Guanabara Bay to nasty swirling current mixed with ocean slop, the racing was extremely testing at times for even the best sailors at the event.
Yesterday was not in the regular seabreeze pattern. When we arrived on the course, the wind had already filled from the southwest in anticipation of a small trough of weather. We were able to start in the 210 direction, but as we went up the first beat, the clouds moving over head quickly burned off revealing yet another 95 degree day. Brad and I had a great start near the boat-end of the line, tacked and crossed to the right side of the course. Ultimately we were crossed by only three boats in the final few hundred yards of the course from the left side of the fleet. Because the current was finally not pushing us upwind, the 2.1 mile windward beat took almost 45 minutes. The race took nearly three hours to complete, and the final direction for the last beat was almost 100 degrees left of where we started. In retrospect as the clouds burned off the breeze started to trend left towards the normal seabreeze direction. We made a critical error on the second beat letting too many boats get left of us, and were only able to hold onto a 14th place finish in the race. We were able to hold off Percy and Simpson as they sailed across the line for their World Championship, and were able to put some serious points on a number of other teams that were deep in the race allowing us to move up the leaderboard to 11th overall, one point out of tenth and only three behind Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada in 9th.
If you take a look at the results list, it provides a pretty good “box score” analysis of how difficult the event was. It was not uncommon for sailors that finished in the top ten to have 30s, 40s, even 50s in their series.
Today we will pack up the boats into containers and hopefully have them ship back to the US before Bacardi Cup in about 8 weeks. Next up, I will be coaching Charlie Buckingham at Miami OCR.
Good times in Rio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0lRYMQO3ic