Team USA’s Hans Henken and Ian Barrows Capture Olympic Bronze
In a nail-biting finish that wasn’t over until the last jibe, just ahead of the Swiss and British at the line, the American 49er team of California’s Hans Henken and Ian Barrows captured the 2024 Paris Olympics bronze medal. The USA medal drought has been excruciating, and in today’s Men’s Skiff final it took Henken/Barrows the entire race of fighting and clawing to finally break through and claim a place finish for the bronze.
After yesterday’s postponement of two attempted races, racing commenced this morning in a moderate nine- to 11-knot breeze in front of a packed seawall in Marseille, France, with Team USA starting the day in fourth place. It took a mistake by Ireland, over the line early, to open the door for the Americans. It wasn’t easy, but they sailed brilliantly.
“Ian and I have been training for the past five years for this and we knew our chances were to go for bronze or silver,” Henken said. “Putting ourselves in medal contention and going into that last race was what we wanted.
“A lot of things had to go our way, but we also had to execute at the highest level and we were able to get both today, and that feels amazing,” Henken exclaimed. “We had an excellent start; you can’t ask for anything better, going full speed. We had to defend the Swiss all the way to the finish line, which wasn’t easy to do.”
This is the US Sailing Team’s first Olympic medal in sailing since Caleb Paine’s bronze in Rio in 2016.
“I’m speechless; I still can’t believe it,” Barrows said. “I’m really happy, especially for Hans as he’s been doing this for a really long time. Our team is amazing and we couldn’t have done it without each and every one of them.”
“We put in so much hard work to get here and to have it all come together in this last race is just amazing,” Henken said. “Ian and I had the goal of having a chance in the medal race — we knew that’s a level that we had. Just to be there felt like an achievement in its own right, and to finish with this bronze medal is really the cherry on top.”
For the final race of the Paris Olympics, the pair started toward the pin end of the starting line, securing their choice of the left side for the first upwind. Their close rivals, Dickson and Waddilove of Ireland, were OCS and forced to return to the starting line, which opened the door for Barrows and Henken to inch closer to the bronze medal position.
Staying close to the front of the fleet, Barrows/Henken rounded the first upwind mark in sixth. They put the pedal to the metal on the downwind, playing a great leg and picking up two boats, closing the gap with the Swiss. They stayed close to the Swiss on the second upwind, overtaking them at a close mark rounding and soaring into fourth for the last race.
Spain’s Diego Botin and Florián Trittel fulfilled a lifelong dream by mastering the Men’s Skiff to become Olympic champions. The Spanish pair sailed impressively throughout the regatta, finishing atop the Opening Series by a narrow five-point margin.
Botin recently captured SailGP’s championship for Season 4 in San Francisco and had not won an individual race heading into the decisive Medal Race. But Botin and Trittel saved their best for last, dominating the fleet in an exceptional show on the water to cross the line first.
“It’s a dream come true. After years of putting the work in with the best team, with our families here, it doesn’t get any better,” Botin said.
“Staying focused has been one of the key factors for these two days of trying to get the Medal Race in,” added Trittel. “We knew what we wanted, which was to do the best Medal Race we could, to win that gold medal. That made us stay very focused; we had a clear game plan and I think we managed to execute it almost perfectly.”
New Zealand’s Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie wrapped up the silver medal with an important third-place finish in the Medal Race.
There is still much more sailing in Marseille over the next few days, especially for Lafayette Park’s Daniela Moroz as she looks for gold in Kite Sailing’s Olympic debut.
Editors’ Note:
The Following is Not an Advertisement for NBC’s Streaming Service Peacock
Are you trying to watch Olympic sailing, but can only find basketball, table tennis, and breaking? Are you tired of waking up at 3 a.m. just to watch a race abandoned for lack of wind?
NBC’s streaming service Peacock offers full sailing coverage, and the best part is that replays are readily available. This is not any kind of endorsement for Peacock (Ha! We wish NBC were knocking on our sales rep’s door), but several people have asked us how to watch sailing, and our personal streaming experiences have been very satisfying. (We’ve been delighted to hear the familiar, soothing, East Coast-accented voice of Gary Jobson calling the races. He has now been the voice of sailing for going on four decades.)
Yes, you’ll need to sign up and pay for the streaming service, but it’s reasonably priced and well worth it, in our opinion.
Created for Your Reading Pleasure — Latitude 38 August Issue Out Now
Welcome to the August issue of Latitude 38, our favorite sailing magazine. This month we bring you stories and photos from the Pacific Cup mid-ocean, 173 years of America’s Cups, wooden boats, SailGP, solar-powered sailing and much more.
Here’s a preview.
Catching the Pac Cup Mid-ocean
Writing race previews seems to tempt fate, and writing race updates in print runs the risk of making published information tragically out of date by the time you pick up a fresh copy of this magazine. Last month, we wrote about the highly anticipated Pacific Cup showdown between Glass Slipper and Rapid Transit. The boats were designed by Jim Antrim, built at Berkeley Marine Center and owned by Cree and Jim Partridge respectively. It was a unique matchup featuring all kinds of Bay Area design and boatbuilding talent, and we were frothing to see how it would turn out. What could possibly go wrong?
Brigadoon — A Klaus Family Love Affair
“My appreciation for the water started after a day exploring Red Rock in San Francisco Bay as a Boy Scout,” says Terry Klaus, caretaker of Brigadoon, the first design from L. Francis Herreshoff. Completed in 1924 by the Britt Brothers of Massachusetts, this schooner has been a member of the Klaus family for 48 years. Wooden boats are a gathering place for sport and socializing, a place to work and a place to craft for this family. Recognition of that importance might not have materialized had it not been for a young lad’s switch from Boy Scouts to Sea Scouts.
San Francisco to the Bahamas — Dreams Born on S.F. Bay
The first time I touched a cruising sailboat was in 1995, on my first trip through the San Francisco Bay Area on a cross-country road trip. I was in college and driving from New England to Los Angeles on a tight budget with a friend. To save money, sleep in a real bed, and get a few free meals, we spent nights with people we knew whenever we could.
Until that evening, I hadn’t thought much about sailboats. Boats were not a part of my upbringing. My father immigrated to the United States via a terrifying journey across the Atlantic Ocean, and he had zero interest in boats after that.
Here’s more of what’s inside:
- Letters: A Few Words About Last Month’s Cover Photo; What I’ve Learned From Chartering; Do These People Ever Age?; and many more readers’ letters.
- Sightings: Catching the Pac Cup Mid-Ocean; The Wisdom/Experience of Tony English; 173 Years of America’s Cups; and other stories.
- Feature Stories: A Klaus Family Love Affair; Spanish Mission Succeeds; San Francisco to Bahamas; The Resourceful Sailor Sails Solar.
- Max Ebb: Overdue — “I decided to pursue one of my favorite activities when I find myself in an unfamiliar club with time to kill: check out their library.”
- Racing Sheet: We visit races north, south and in between: Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week, the Race to Alaska, YRA’s Half Moon Bay Race, Westpoint Regatta and Jr. Waterhouse, the C420 Women’s North Americans, StFYC’s Woodies Invitational and Opti Heavy Weather, and the Melges 24 Nationals in Santa Barbara.
- Changes in Latitudes: This month we report on Tieton’s Puddle Jump; Zandra’s cruise down the Kiel Canal; Part 1 of Outrun’s prep and departure for the South Seas; and a sea bag full of Cruise Notes.
- Loose Lips: A wrap-up of July’s Caption Contest(!).
- All the latest in sailboats and sailboat gear for sale, Classy Classifieds.
We appreciate all readers and all our supporters. You keep Latitude 38 in print! You can show your appreciation by supporting our advertisers who have made this issue possible.
Learn to Race with Modern Sailing
Bay Area Filmmaker Showcases S.F. Bay’s Historic Sailboats
Bay Area film producer Vincent Casalaina of Berkeley has shared an update of his newest work, Wind in Their Sails: Death and Resurrection. The film tells the story of San Francisco’s beautiful and historic sailboats, celebrating the classic yachts that have survived and the people who have dedicated their lives to maintaining them.
“1849 and ‘Gold Fever’ changed San Francisco from a sleepy small town to a booming stopping-off point for those coming by square-rigged ships around Cape Horn and across the Pacific on their way to the gold fields. Many of those ships came to the Bay and were abandoned by their crews. They were left to rot and die on the shoreline. Death is a natural part of the life cycle of wooden ships,” Casalaina writes. “Even today, 170 years after the Gold Rush, there are boats on the Bay that hark back to those glorious days of sail and how competition was always a part of that sailing history.”
Here’s what Casalaina has to say about the film:
The Story’s Dark Side:
The dark side to this story is that wooden boats need lots of tender loving care to stay afloat and capable of sailing. Without that care, these boats fall quickly into disrepair. Every year several wooden boats disappear from the Bay.
A few lucky boats find a way to come back to life. Our story focuses on the Freda, built in 1885. The Freda has died twice, and both times found people who dedicated time and money to bring her back to life. Other boats have also been resurrected, and they will flesh out the story.
In Their Own Words:
Our story is told directly by the owners, sailors, and boat restorers who have dedicated their lives to preserving these beautiful boats with deep roots in the Bay. These people are passionate about their work and it shows in the way they talk about the boats and the care they take in maintaining them.
Wind in Their Sails: Death and Resurrection is both educational and uplifting, and it provides a fascinating look at the classic yachts that have become such an important part of San Francisco’s history and culture.
Our Team:
The documentary is helmed by Emmy award-winning producer Vincent Casalaina and hosted by legendary yachtsman and America’s Cup winner Gary Jobson.
“I’ve just finished a short video about the Master Mariners Benevolent Association’s 2024 regatta, featuring the 100-year-old Brigadoon,” Casalaina adds. You can watch the Brigadoon video here.
The documentary is being endorsed by local sailing businesses and organizations. You can follow the production journey on the team’s Facebook page.
‘Tally Ho’ Crew Share the Lowdown on Turtle Bay
Rich and Laura Brazil are no strangers to sailing the West Coast, having done the bash from Mexico to San Francisco multiple times. At the time of this writing, the pair and two friends were waiting to return north after almost two weeks of Mexican warmth and sunshine in Turtle Bay, aboard the 43-ft Nauticat Tally Ho.They sent us a note to share an update on some of the changes they’ve encountered and to give a heads-up to cruisers heading south with the Baja Ha-Ha in the fall.
“Hola From Bahia de Tortugas,
“Tally Ho is bashing north to Ensenada and currently awaiting a weather window from the confines of Turtle Bay. I thought I would help fellow Ha-Ha’ers with an update.
“Fuel: I’m told by the locals that Enrique is no longer the fuel guy. Ernesto is the new fuel guy. He is a family member of Enrique and treated us kindly. He delivered clean fuel by panga, hoisted totes aboard with the help of his crewmates, and siphoned the fuel into our tanks. He spoke very little English. 36 pesos per liter. The Pemex station up the hill charges 27 pesos per liter if you want to carry your own jugs.
“Anchorage: There is a new oyster farm located 100 yards off the end of the pier. A large kelp bed has formed.”
“The locals are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the [Baja Ha-Ha] fleet. Rojelio Senior and Rojelio Junior, owners of the small beach-landing shack, spoke very highly of the importance of visiting sailors and the kindness of past fleets.
“That’s all for now.
“Looks like we have a good weather window opening soon. Our 10 days in Turtle Bay have been a welcome opportunity to slow down, recharge our mental batteries, and enjoy the simple pleasures of life.”
A few months ago Tally Ho was listed for sale. “Because of the non-use we would have during hurricane season, we decided to make an adventure of a slow bash home,” Rich explains.
Rich expects it will take them a month to sail from La Paz to Ensenada. “Ten anchorages so far,” he says. “We’ll leave the boat in Ensenada for a couple of months before the final leg to the S.F. Bay.”
Tally Ho is still for sale. You can learn more about her in our Classy Classifieds.
Sign Up for the Jazz Cup
