Sailors take aim at 2004 Olympics in qualifying race
By Leila Wai
Special to The Advertiser
On the first weekend of summer, six teams qualified their countries for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece.
The 49er World Championship — the first sailing Olympic qualifying event of the year — was held this weekend in Kane'ohe Bay, hosted by the Kane'ohe Yacht Club.
Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez, representing Spain, won with 32 points. Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks of Great Britain finished second with 40 points and Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith, also of Great Britain, placed third with 45 points.
Along with Spain and Great Britain, crews representing the Ukraine, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands qualified their countries for spots in the Olympics.
There are 18 qualifying spots for the Olympics — Greece, the host country, receives an automatic bid — and the countries that qualify have the option of choosing different crew members for the Games.
The venue received high praise from the teams, which numbered 49 from 18 different countries.
"This is one of the most beautiful sailing areas we've been to," said Mark A. Pryke, and International Sailing Federation (ISAF) judge. "The conditions are outstanding. The winds have been as consistently good as you could possibly hope for."
The sailors agreed.
Morgan Larson, representing the Unites States, is no stranger to sailing Hawai'i's waters. From 1992-1994 he represented the University of Hawai'i on the sailing team.
"With the warm water and trade winds, it is perfect for sailing," Larson said. "Sailing the 49er is a cross between wind surfing and sailing a boat. It is fast, light and perfect for sailing in Hawai'i."
Draper, 24, who qualified Great Britain, said that the venue is "incredible."
"You couldn't really hope for a better place to sail a 49er. The water is so flat and the winds are so strong. They are gusty and shifty so there are a lot of tactics involved and that makes it really exciting. This is probably the best place I've ever sailed," he said.
Using the same format as the Olympics, crews competed in 20 races over six days. The team with the lowest score wins.
The races are 4 miles. However, because of the dynamics of sailing, crews cover distances from 6-8 miles. Each race lasts about 30 minutes.
Rodion Luka and George Leonchuk from the Ukraine finished fifth. They were the top-ranked team in the world entering the championships.
"It was very hard to be good and very easy to be bad with this kind of wind, which was very, very shifty," Luka said. "We wanted to at least be in the top three, but we at least qualified our country for the Olympics, and that was our main goal when we came here."
The 49er class made its debut in the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. It is an open class, available to both men and women.
The 49er, named for its 4.99 meter length, "is very light and unstable and takes considerable athletic skill to sail," John Reed, International Class Administrator, said. "It requires a cross between the stamina needed in a marathon runner and the agility of a gymnast or a belly dancer.
"If you stuck it in the water and pushed one end down, it would tip over, that is how unstable it is. The weight distribution of the crew is what keeps it upright."
The two-man crew may have a hard enough time staying upright themselves. In a delicate balance of grace and strength, they hang on a harness off the side of the boat, adjusting their weight and position as needed.
The boats can reach speeds of 20-30 knots (about 23-34.5 mph).
There are two more Olympic qualifying events, the 2003 World Championship, where eight nations will qualify, and the 2004 World Championship where four teams will qualify.
