Winning title could be a breeze for Rainbows

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

University of Hawai'i's Molly O'Bryan, right, will be seeking her second national title and third All-America honor with the help of All-America crew Sarah Hitchcock this week at Ke'ehi Lagoon. Jeff Widener The Honolulu Advertiser

For the next two weeks, the country's finest collegiate sailors will be in the warm water of Ke'ehi Lagoon. If the Rainbows get their sailing wish, the "big breeze" from prevailing trade winds will blow everybody out of the water again.

"On the East Coast you get big breeze, but it's a lot colder," UH sophomore Jennifer Warnock said. "It's iceberg sailing. Last time we sailed on the East Coast it was hailing on our boat. It's totally different sailing. There, you're under 400 layers of clothing. Here, it's smoother and flatter and you can feel the wind on your body and totally tell where it's going to come from. It is a big advantage."

Home, apparently, is where the balmy 30-mph trade winds are. Opponents don't even get to practice off Sand Island until the day their championship starts. For the women, that's tomorrow, with the coed nationals starting a week later and team championships running in between.

Seeking a sweep

UH coach Andy Johnson, always optimistic but not normally given to Namath-like predictions, says flat-out his teams have a shot at all three titles and should at least be top five.

The ninth-ranked women won the school's fifth national team championship (women's volleyball won the first four) last year. Molly O'Bryan graduated last Sunday in Political Science and Sociology and hopes to collect a second title and third All-America honor before she begins an Olympic campaign. All-America crew Sarah Hitchcock is back in O'Bryan's boat. Warnock just earned all-district honors.

"Our casualness shows to everyone so they just kind of brushed us off last year," O'Bryan recalled. "Not just the sailors, everybody. They were telling us how hard it was to sail on the East Coast, nothing like anything else you're ever going to sail in. To me, sailing is sailing. You have the same challenges everywhere you go. You just have to adapt.

"They knew we'd do well, they just didn't know we'd do that well. And we pretty much knew, yep, we're going to do really well."

This year's 12th-ranked coed team features all-district sailor Bryan Lake, the man Johnson calls the finest freshman on the water. Lake is irrepressibly optimistic.

"Big breeze, flat water, wow ... ," Lake says, rolling his eyes. "I laugh at anybody who goes to another college. Our chances of winning are 100 percent in light air and 100 percent in trade winds. We'll kick their okole anyways."

Lake will have to wait a few hundred races to find out if his swagger is justified. The championships will overwhelm Ke'ehi. The origins of college sailing guarantee it.

The sport is run by the ICSA, not the NCAA, a fact that can be traced to its roots 100 years ago. The original directors were adamant about having their sport run by someone who shared their passion.

Play in our playground

These championships are purely an adventure in paradise. The only commitment visitors — nearly 1,000 could come in during the two weeks — made came a year ago, when they agreed to finance their trip if they qualified from one of the seven districts. UH, especially Johnson, assistant Jesse Andrews and the 30 athletes on their roster, has put this extravaganza together with little help.

"It's a big acknowledgment to our program that we're for real and everybody respects what we're doing out here," Johnson said. "And they want to come and play in our playground, basically. But I didn't know what I was in for."

Some visiting squads —18 qualified for each of the women's and coed championships and 12 for the team — are fully funded while others are strictly student-run. Some teams will stay in hotels, others in private housing. Johnson even gave teams names of campsites.

But when they get to the starting line, everyone is equal.

In hopes of finding the finest sailors — not the school that can buy the best boat — visiting teams basically just have to show up in collegiate sailing. Hosts supply the boats. UH raised money to buy a dozen two-person Flying Juniors the past year. It got an assist from UH-Hilo, which purchased six more in anticipation of starting a team.

There are no scholarships in the sport, which has more than 200 teams. Only four sailors per team (A and B division) are ever on the water at once during regattas, with the exception of the team event when one "team" of three boats competes against another.

Races last approximately 15 minutes and are close to shore and spectator-friendly — as is the weather. Ask any Rainbow.

"Sailing here, everyday, is so much better than anywhere else you've ever sailed," said O'Bryan, who — like Lake and Warnock — is from San Diego.

Johnson, who sailed here before he became coach, is more devoted.

"I can't even describe how happy we are to be here," he says. "It is such a huge disadvantage for us to travel. Next year the nationals are in the Detroit River. That's going to be horrible. And for us, I don't think we've lost an event in our lagoon. Ever."

NOTES: In every event, boats earn points based on finish (one for first, two for second, etc.). The team with the fewest points wins. ... Boats are usually rotated each race so that each team sails each boat in the fleet once. ... Women's and coed events are two divisions (A and B) with the scores of each division added for a final team score. ... Every race in the team championship will be on a triangle windward course. The other two regattas will be on one of four courses, all a variation of the three buoys set up for UH practices. The first leg is usually tactical, with the last two designed for speed. ... The UH Campus Center Leisure Program runs its sailing/water safety programs at the Marine Education Center. Two five-day courses are open to the public and UH students. After passing both courses, students are certified and can rent boats.

2002 Intercollegiate Sailing Association North American Championships

WHERE: Honolulu Community College Marine Education and Training Center on Ke'ehi Lagoon. To get there, turn right at first light after Sand Island Bridge.

SCHEDULE:

• Tomorrow-Friday: 36th ICSA North American Women's Championship. Defending champion: Hawai'i
• June 2-4: 43rd ICSA/Ronstan North American Team Race Championship. Defending champion: Georgetown
• June 5-7: 66th ICSA Gill North American Coed Dinghy Championship. Defending champion: Tufts

TIME: Races start at noon the first day of each event, 9:45 a.m. final two days. Last race will start no later than 5 p.m. final day.

ADMISSION: Free