Paralympic Pre-Trials, Newport

By Maureen McKinnon-Tucker, Trimmer

Sailors have many terms for the kind of wind we experienced while racing the Paralympic Pre-Trials in Newport this last weekend: Blowing the dog off the chain, Honking, Blowing Stink, Nukin’…. whatever the term, it was damn cold and windy! This was a condition Mark Lewis and I love on the SKUD-18 because it means downwind we will be planning like mad and the adrenaline will be pumping like mad. Perhaps a few degrees warmer would have been nice though!

Coach Dan Tucker and Michael Lewis arrived in Newport with our boat on Saturday morning, rigged it up and Dan and Mark went out for a sail together, working on driving technique. The highlight was flying out the East Passage of Naragansett Bay under spinnaker, chasing the most beautiful boat ever built, the America’s Cup J-Class yacht Endeavor. They never did quite catch her though they did keep up. Heck, she is about 5 times our size!

We started training with two of the other SKUDs on Sunday, running boat handling and boat speed drills under the watchful and insightful eyes of US Disabled Sailing Team coach Betsy Alison and our coach. We must have done 100+ spinnaker sets and douses during 4 days of drills and practice races. We set a speed record for the SKUD-18 class during one practice, clocking 12.2 knots of boatspeed on the GPS in 15-18 knots of wind.

The regatta opened up Thursday night at the prestigious New York Yacht Club, where in the opening speech, the Vice Commodore recognized the need for Yacht Clubs to step up and support campaigns like ours and other Paralympians and Olympians.  Best-dressed Paralympic hopeful goes to John Ruf, sporting a jazzy bow tie! Friday AM we woke up to 42 degrees and weather reports of gusts in the mid to upper teens. Sailors looked ready more for the slopes than a day on the water - ski masks, wool hats and insulated boots! All I could focus on was visions of spray flying from the bow and rooster tails flying from the stern…I was a bit nervous, but psyched.

Two SKUD teams dropped out of Race 1 due to main halyard issues. After a fix from the fly bridge of Peter Wilson’s High Noon, the United Shores team of Sarah Everhart-Skeels and Bob Jones on USA 001 was back in for Race 2. Mark and I posted two first places; it was a good start for Team Eagle.

Saturday, Day Two, the weather was predicted to be the same, so on with the layers and winter again! Race 3 was a bit confusing, with an extra mark in the water on the reach to the outside of the trapezoid course and no one seemed to know how many legs the course was. Two boats got it wrong and didn’t finish; we got it right, and another bullet. Race 4 the top ranked US team of Karen Mitchell & Mike Grimm on USA 004 prevailed with upwind speed none of us could match and we took a second.

Just as the gun went off for Race 5’s five minute warning - our mainsheet got stuck! I looked back and it was in eight twists. We would need to take outside help (& get disqualified) or get out of my seat while racing, possibly against class rules (& get disqualified) and teeter on stern and risk falling overboard. None of the choices were good. We couldn’t head the boat up nor down! The time kept ticking on to the start and I yanked and yanked to free it up. Long after the teams left the start line, we dip-started and began praying that it would free enough to sail upwind and on course…eight twists turned to six, six freed to four, four freed to two, and with one last yank with all the might I had, it was operational again!! We set it to close-hauled about half way up the beat and we were on the hunt, but a half leg behind. Closing some distance on each leg but not enough, we finished last. Back at the dock, we found our spin halyard frayed within a few strands of its life. We trimmed it off, but could never predict how it would affect the system’s overall tension and performance the next day.

Sunday’s racing brought slightly less wind and the same temps, and was rather gusty and shifty. The first race of the day, Race 6, the gun went off and we tacked to port, the Scott Whitman and Julia “Princess” Dorsett on USA 005 crossed us. We bore off to duck the right of way Mitchell/Grimm but WHAM! We misjudged the duck and hit the port side of the Miami team. No significant damage occurred to either boat, but after a penalty turn, we were behind again. Rounding the windward mark we launched the spinnaker and another twist in the halyard/retriever system… it filled with water and we lost more ground. Throughout the remainder of the day, that shortened line plagued us, costing us ground at every hoist. We were closing distance on the beats and as usual on our good downwind legs, but hoisting the kite was painfully slow and difficult. We finished last in Race 6, but with Mitchell/Grimm winning the race and Everhart-Skeels/Jones beating Whitman/Dorsett we clinched the overall win. No one could catch us as long as we at least finished the final race.

Going into the last race, the other 3 teams were tied and their finish order would determine the final standings. We held our lead, if only by one little point, Mitchell/Grim in second, Whitman/Dorsett in third and Everhart-Skeels/Jones in fourth. All of us separated with only ONE point between each place. It was good to get a gold medal around my neck with my nation’s National Governing Body logo on it. Hopefully, one year from now, we go back to Newport, for the actual Paralympic Trials, win again, taking the regatta and our team to the Paralympics China!!!!

Division: Skud 18 (4 boats)

Notes

1. Scoring System is ISAF Low Point 2005-2008
2. Finishes in [brackets] denote throwouts

Thanks to our sponsors GUL for helping us stay warm and dry, EZ Loader Trailers for helping us get our boat around, ICOM for the communications used during practice, Duxbury Bay Maritime School, Sailing Foundation of New York and all of our supporters. Thanks also to US Sailing Team sponsors, particularly Harken, New England Ropes and McLube. We really do use their stuff on the boat and it makes a difference! Special thanks to Anarchist JeffR for helping out with awesome (and affordable) lodging; it was great to have a homey place to come back to every night!

10/22/06