The last US superstars of Olympic sailing, three-time medallist Paul Foerster and (swimming) two-time medallist Kevin Burnham celebrate winning the gold medal at Athens in 2004 in the Men’s 470; tragically Burnham would pass away in 2020 aged just 63 after a long battle with pulmonary illness. In the 20 years since 2004 the US scorecard reads: Anna Tunnicliffe Laser gold and Zach Railey a silver medal in the Finns; both results achieved at Beijing 2008. Since then every time that US Olympic sailing (or specifically US Sailing’s Olympic ‘programme’) gets a new lease of life it promptly self-destructs again. Today’s US Sailing lawsuit against several of their most generous and experienced former supporters just about sums it up. Pity the young sailors
ashes into the spray, with tears, wind and waves washing over him as he said farewell to his great friend and mentor. Moments and memories from this great race, both fleeting and
everlasting, locked in the minds of those who lived them. But then onwards, always onwards. Blue Robinson
USA Paying for it all Miami in winter is busy. A good-sized fleet of 17 entries divided into three classes have just set off for Nassau in the third leg of the SORC in one of the oldest offshore races in the US, first run in 1934. Pinnacles in the history of the sport like Ted Turner, Dennis Conner,
Dick Bertram and Ted Hood have all made their marks in this race competing on legendary yachts like Running Tide, Windward Passage, Tenacious and Boomerang. It’s not 600 miles but it’s not an easy track to get across an often boisterous Gulf Stream, to then thread a path through the shallow waters of the Bahamas to get to the finish at Paradise Island in Nassau Harbour. Meanwhile, in Biscayne Bay the racecourse areas are full of both
young and old sailors racing numerous one-design classes – from M32s to Etchells to Snipes and the Olympic classes – in search of glory and their onward march through the sport. Some perhaps destined for similar achievements and the fame enjoyed by Conner and Turner in their day. But lately there’s been a lot of concern for how well promising
youth sailors are able to meet their goals given the ever rising costs of elite competition. Travel and equipment costs have also just about killed off the overseas participation we had in the offshore sector since the heydays of the SORC in the 1970s and 1980s. And the US dominance of Olympic podiums in those far-off days has suffered similarly if not more, although for different reasons. Funding, or lack of it, is a common theme whenever this topic comes up over here. Marcus Lynch from the UK was just hired by US Sailing as its new
(ie latest…) High Performance Director, and was in Miami watching the competition at the US Olympic Trials. ‘I have been observing the US teams for the last 10 years and have seen lots of talent that has gotten them very close to the podium many times,’ he said. ‘So I am confident this team has the potential for more.’ But now it will be his job to devise the pathways needed to produce
more consistent sustained performance to elevate the results of US teams in the Olympic and Pan Am Games events. Lynch is inevitably upbeat about the challenge, though like his sometimes illustrious recent predecessors he willingly shares that ‘it will take years to develop but it will yield results…’ And so I have to ask for how much longer do we have to keep hearing the same story? ‘This is a knowledge and experienced-based sport, so long devel-
opment timelines are needed to achieve consistent results. I see also that this is not a programme that focuses on individuals, but as an entity that can learn together and create an environment for learning as a team.’ Again, déjà vu sets in. Yet finding the financial support for that training and ultimately
excellence in these events, particularly the Olympics, is very dissimilar to the schemes devised in other nations to support their top athletes.
Everyone reading this knows about the largesse available to the UK teams since 1996 with UK National Lottery funding. As well as the growing commercial sponsorship of Olympic sailors, and sometimes teams, some European teams also have the option to fund athletes and coaches through the military (older readers will remember the days of the GDR, their boats and sailors arriving at Olympic class events in drab, camouflaged military vehicles). The antipodes face similar logistical challenges to the US and
Canadian teams, being away from European racing venues, but are not constrained, as US teams are, by having by law to run an open selection process through a quad before funding can be concentrated on a handful who then have a straight path to the final event. So for aspiring young US sailors where does the money come
from? It starts with family and friends, then as the opportunities increase through good performance regionally it shifts to local clubs. Harnessing an innate desire in our culture for the successful to give back and reinvest in those trying to follow in their footsteps, there are many wealthy and more modest-tier clubs throughout the US that have created foundations with defined missions to help propel those with the passion and talent to the next stage. One of the most successful is the support given over some five
decades by members of the St Francis Yacht Club to young sailors in the San Francisco Bay area. Since the mid-1970s that support has propelled many St Francis Juniors to Olympic and even America’s Cup glory. John Kostecki, Paul Cayard and John Bertrand are just a few examples, but there are more. It’s safe to say that nearly every high-performance US sailor in
any context has been the recipient of some level of support through local and regional foundations. These schemes succeed in soliciting donations because when set up as legal charities the donors may receive tax relief on their incomes – always an inviting option (it is for these reasons that American big boat owners regularly give away unwanted racing yachts to foundations or to a marine academy). And besides these yacht club foundations it turns out there are
other new sources of support emerging too. Jon Anthony from the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association explains how they start at the grass roots level to encourage those with proven podium per- formance at the local. ‘We seek and target certain audiences such as first, second and third-tier sailors as recipients,’ he said. ‘Marketing and funding via donations and reporting the results
of these grants we feel are so critical to growing the sport, which is our only real mission. The inspiration created by communicating this success spurs young talent to keep on striving to succeed. And even if they don’t reach Olympic heights, what they’ve learnt from the process inevitably prove to be invaluable life lessons.’ CBYRA support for sailors like Trevor Davis (full confession prob-
ably needed, Dobbs –Ed!) has created good results: all three podium positions at the latest Junior Snipe Worlds in Miami were filled by under-22 US sailors, the first time in living memory. And while the ‘child’ was too young to compete this year, Trevor nonetheless gave back by providing coaching and support for all three teams. He and newly minted Pan Am gold medallist and Rolex Award nominee Allan Terhune were all helped on their pathways by CBYRA and the Annapolis YC Foundation. The US still lags way behind many other nations in small boat
campaign funding, in part the consequence of our predominantly Corinthian sailing culture. But inch by inch (no metres please) things are changing gently. However, there is a long road ahead before we can afford to dream of the sort of Olympic sailing success enjoyed in those heady days at the end of the last century. Dobbs Davis
q SEAHORSE 31
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