Guest Editorial

Kiwi Cup 2003

by Carson Reynolds

As everyone knows this time around in the Americas Cup there will not be an American skipper involved. After the longest winning streak in the history of sports America is unable to produce a skipper worthy of challenging for the race we dominated for 132 years. The reasons lie in the junior sailing in foreign countries versus the junior sailing in America.

Down under the boats, regattas, and yacht clubs are far superior to anything we have in the US. American junior programs support boats such as Sabots, Optis, El Toros and other pram boats while in Australia the junior boat is a flying 11, which is an 11-foot skiff, built for two with a spinnaker capable of 18+ knots. John Winning, 29er World Champion, sails with his dad on his Aussie 18 in the weekend race they have. These kids are trained to sail harder boats that are more exciting which advance their interest in the sport. Prams are far less exciting boats and continue to lose the interest of young sailors. Americas maturing sailors get placed into boats like the CFJ and the Club 420. These are both slow in comparison to the training boats for the clubs down under. As Australian and New Zealand sailors mature they are put into boats like the 29er and the International 420 to start the Olympic dinghy training to lead them to the 49er and the 470.

The youth who want to continue in a different path are put into a match racing youth development program. The youth development program puts these kids against each other in the program to develop their match racing skills and their boat handling skills. Almost all the competitive yacht clubs in Sydney, Australia and at least two in New Zealand have a fleet of six to ten equally matched boats that are either Elliot 5.9s (the older version) or Elliot 6.0 (the updated new version). The yacht clubs that own the boats host regattas in the summer months of November, December and January to boost their homegrown talent by putting their youth up against the best in the world.

James Spithill came from a yacht club in Australia that has this program, a perfect example of the success of these programs. America has one youth match race, the Governor's Cup at Balboa Yacht Club. It is a international match race that is equal to those held in Australia and New Zealand but the opportunity to sail in this event is limited to nine American teams and with a age limit of 20 by the time the sailors are old enough to have a good enough resume to get into the regatta they only have one or two years of eligibility.

The American community of yacht clubs needs to step up and build programs similar to those in Australia and New Zealand if it ever wants an American to have a chance at driving in the Americas Cup. The current skippers of both boats that remain in the Louis Vuitton cup are from New Zealand and the skipper from Team New Zealand is also Kiwi.
Let us be reminded as all of our teachers once told us "Education is the key to future success".

Carson Reynolds, 19, is a Southern California sailor, currently sailing for OCC sailing team. He sailed for Newport Harbor High School '99-'00, and is currently ranked 447th in the World, 22nd in the US for Match Racing

Guest Editorial

Why Oracle Will Win Race Three

We like to hear what you have to say (well, mostly), and some of you have sent us things in the form of Editorials and Rants, and sometimes we actually print them. Here's one we received this morning. If you'd like to do the same, just send it to The Ed.

Because they have to. It's not "must-win", but it's close. They were right in there yesterday, showing very similar upwind speed, and clearly superior downwind speed. They've been good on starts, and are due to win one, and tonight will be the night.

Given a slight advantage at the start, they can fend Alinghi off on the first beat, and then stretch on the first run. The next series of beats will be ferocious with Alinghi gaining, but Oracle will hang on, and win the runs. The downwind finish will play to Oracle's strength, and give them the nod, in this, race three.

They will then prove (especially to themselves) that they can beat Alinghi. From this race forward, an ever-aggressive Holmberg will go after Alinghi at the starts, and Coutts will be cautious and not wish to over-engage. Look for Oracle to get an edge here.

The series will turn, and it will be an absolute battle until the very end. Who will win? Most likely Alinghi, but it won't be as seemingly easy as it has been.

1/13/03