CISA Clinic a hopeful look at U.S.' Olympic future
Article by Rich Roberts

LONG BEACH, Calif.---The good vibes cut through a cool, brisk breeze on the last day of the California International Sailing Association's Advanced Racing Clinic Tuesday with a message loud and clear: the U.S. is on track back into Olympic prominence.

"For sure," said Kevin Burnham, who with Paul Foerster won the only American gold medal in sailing at Athens in 2004 and spent the last few days helping to lift the current crop of prospects to that high plain.

There were 118 boys and girls ages 13 to 18 from 12 states from the East Coast to Hawaii for the 31st CISA clinic hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. The participants were selected from more than 300 applicants on the basis of their résumés. The program consisted of lectures and on-water drills including tactics, strategy, sail trim, boat speed and organizing a successful Olympic campaign, climaxed by competitive racing Tuesday.

"We had a lot of good kids sailing here," said Burnham, who with Skip Whyte tutored the top tier International 420 class. "The racing was close and there was a lot of smart sailing."

Especially in the International 420 class, a 14-foot, two-person dinghy that's a step up in technology from the similar Club 420 and CFJ fleets for less experienced sailors. All competitors were ages 16 or 17, while other groups ran as young as 13. Oliver Toole and crew Willie McBride of Santa Barbara won the last two of seven I-420 races to tie Joe Morris of Annapolis and crew Justin Doane of Nokamis, Fla. for first place, which they won on a tiebreaker.

The sailing conditions provided a good test. The first three days of drills brought light to moderate wind and flat seas, while Tuesday delivered swells and proper chop with 10 to 12 knots of breeze.

Other winners:

29ER SKIFF---Judge Ryan, 16, and crew Hans Henken, 15, of San Diego by a point over Max Fraser, 17, Capitola, Calif., and crew David Liebenberg, 16, Livermore, Calif.---also determined by the last race.

CFJ---Reece Bernet, 15, San Diego, and crew Kyle Vanderspek, 16, San Diego, with two firsts and four seconds.

C 420---Greg Dair, 15, San Pedro, Calif., and Rebecca King, 16, Santa Monica, with two wins and no finish worse than fifth in a 16-boat fleet.

LASER---Caleb Paine, 17, San Diego, won all seven races, with Cameron Summers, 17, Huntington Beach, second each time.

LASER RADIAL---Chris Barnard, 16, Newport Beach, opened with a fifth place then ran the table with six wins.

Paine said his most valuable benefit from this, his third, CISA clinic was the instructors' advice about raising funds for an Olympic campaign.

"The approach they took for their sailing made them great," Paine said. "Persistence is very important, as is going out and getting good information rather than waiting for people to come to you."

Toole, the winning I-420 skipper, said, "This was our first time sailing one, just trying to get a feel for tuning the boat. It was really good competition. If you had a bad start you were automatically in last place."

Burnham described how they won the last race about 100 yards from the finish line when "their kite filled and they caught a wave and just jetted out. That was the race."

But the sailors can do only so much without proper equipment. The I-420 is just a step below the 470 dinghy sailed in the Olympics and there were only 11 in this country---all in Southern California---until 10 more were obtained on the East Coast recently.

"We need to get the I-420 class going in this country," Burnham said.

Another instructor was Genny Tulloch, who spent much of 2006 and '07 as a member of the Morning Light team of young sailors who raced a TP 52 in the Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii for Roy E. Disney's documentary film project, due for release in October. She tutored the Laser Radial sailors but also urged them not to limit their horizons.

"This clinic focuses on the Olympics, but then there's another world out there you can do after your Olympic campaign," Tulloch, 23, said. "Morning Light taught me about big boat sailing. It's something I never would have done if it hadn't been for Morning Light. That opened my eyes to the where I'm not just a dinghy sailor anymore."

Another instructor, former Laser national champion Andrew Lewis, expressed the same message when he told the students about his experiences with ABN AMRO 2 in the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race.

This year Tulloch has won at Key West on Jeff Ecklund's Melges 32, and she left town Monday night for Miami to sail in the Farr 40 Worlds on Deneen Demourkas' Groovederci. She'll be back at month's end to do the Newport to Ensenada Race on the legendary Ragtime, which owner Chris Welsh also will race to Tahiti in June.

"I'm doing everything in sailing that I can," Tulloch said.

CISA, founded in 1971, supports amateur sailors by providing travel grants for regional, national and international competition and funds local sailing programs and racing clinics. With assistance from CISA, 39 sailors attended the most recent Orange Bowl Regatta in Miami.

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.

The CISA Advanced Racing Clinic is supported by Vanguard Sailboats, Gill North America and Kaenon Polarized.

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