Paul Cayard and crew Phil Trinter greet Bill Parks, a U.S. bronze
medalist in the Star class of the Olympics at Naples in 1960.
Parks later watched Cayard and Trinter win both races Tuesday.
Rich Roberts reports on the racing on Biscayne
Bay:
Not quite halfway through the U.S. Olympic
Trials for the Star class it appears that the only two guys who
can stop Paul Cayard and crew Phil Trinter from winning the sole
prize trip to Athens are . . . Cayard and Trinter.
And they nearly did so Tuesday, before
winning both races to extend their lead to 14 points over Vince
Brun/Mike Dorgan and 15 over George Szabo/Mark Strube after 7
or 16 scheduled races.
“We basically broke our mast on the
way out to the course,” Cayard said.
Oh, is that all?
They had just exited the harbor into windy
Biscayne Bay when the backstay slipped out of its cleat and their
Olympic campaign almost came tumbling down. If it had happened
later – say, late in the first race, with no time to change before
the second race – the event would be looking at new leaders.
Instead, they got a quick tow back in and
replaced the mast in only 17 minutes.
“What’s good is we kept our composure
and were settled down at the starting line,” Cayard said.
Composure was an asset on a day when the
wind was blowing so hard – a steady 20 knots-plus, touching 29
at one point – that the race committee held the boats ashore
for an hour and a half until 11:30 a.m. when it seemed to be
settling at 20.
From there, after the mast hiccup, Cayard
and Trinter scored their second and third wins by nine seconds
over Brun/Dorgan and 20 seconds over Szabo/Strube. Their log
of finishes in the 22-boat fleet now reads 2-(6)-1-2-3-1-1.
The latter teams moved up a notch as Eric
Doyle and crew Brian Sharp, who won the first two races Saturday,
dropped to fourth overall with their worst two finishes, 10th
and 12th. More significant was their involvement with Mark Reynolds
in an incident at the start of the second race that set back
the four-time Olympian and triple medalist just as he appeared
to be finding his stride.
Reynolds, with crew Steve Erickson, made
his move from seventh place overall by chasing Reynolds across
the finish line for second place in the first race. But in the
pre-start maneuvering for the second race Reynolds found himself
squeezed off between Doyle and the committee boat.
When they touched, the foul was on the
windward boat – Reynolds – requiring a 720-degree penalty turn
(two complete circles) as the fleet sailed away. Reynolds/Erickson
did well to come back to 15th place but actually moved up a notch
to seventh in the standings.
“He was just ‘barging’ and hit us,”
Doyle said.
“Reynolds and Erickson didn’t deny
guilt but thought Doyle pressed his rules advantage a bit too
far when he could have accelerated away with the gun.
“Basically,” Reynolds said, “he
put us in a position where the only way you can get out [without
fouling] is to tack [the other way]” – which would have
been almost as costly as a penalty turn.
With the strongest breeze so far, the race
committee set a longer windward-leeward course and sailed it
twice around.
Cayard had two strong starts. In the first
race he picked his favorite spot at the pin end and led Reynolds
on the second upwind leg as they met from opposite sides of the
course at the windward mark. They both passed early leaders Andy
Lovell/Magnus Liljedahl, then Cayard covered Reynolds all the
way home.
In the second race Cayard started near
the middle of the line and led at every mark without being seriously
challenged.
With a lay day today (Wednesday), the RC
hopes to return with three races Thursday to get the event back
on schedule for the last four days into Sunday.
Downwind legs in close quarters were wild Tuesday. Bunched up
are (from left) John MacCausland/Brad Nichol (8184), Andrew MacDonald/Austin
Sperry (8184), John Dean/Henry Sprague (7832), Karl Anderson/Ezra
Culver (8177) and John Virtue/Scott Pack (7862).
John Virtue and crew Scott Pack try to hold things together after
rounding the leeward mark.
Paul Cayard/Phil Trinter lead Mark Reynolds/Steve Erickson on
the windward offset leg, with Vince Brun/Mike Dorgan in the background.
George Szabo/Mark Strube round the windward mark just ahead of
Vince Brun/Mike Dorgan.
Photos Rich Roberts
Leaders (22 boats, 7 of 16 races, one discard):
1. Paul Cayard/Phil Trinter, San Francisco,
2-(6)-1-2-3-1-1, 10. points.
2. Vince Brun/Mike Dorgan, San Diego, (23/OCS)-9-2-1-4-5-3, 24.
3. George Szabo/Mark Strube, San Diego, 4-5-(14)-9-14-2, 25.
4. Eric Doyle/Brian Sharp, San Diego, 1-1-9-8-5-10-(12), 34.
5. John MacCausland/Brad Nichol, Cherry Hill, N.J., 6-8-3-6-10-(15)-5,
38.
6. Mark Reynolds/Steve Erickson, San Diego, 5-2-10-7-13-2-(15),
39.
7. Howie Shiebler/Will Stout, San Francisco, 3-3-6-(23/OCS)-12-9-6,
39.
8. Rick Merriman/Bill Bennett, San Diego, 7-4-(17)-13-2-7-9,
42.
9. Andrew MacDonald/Austin Sperry, Laguna Beach, Calif., 11-7-5-4-6-(13)-10,
43.
10. Andy Lovell/Magnus Liljedahl, New Orleans, (23/OCS)-23/DNS-4-3-11-3-7,
51.
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