Paul Foerster of Garland, Texas and Bob Merrick of Rhode Island captured third place overall out of 82 470's competing in the SPA Regatta in Medemblik, Holland, May 27 - 31. The SPA Regatta was the second stop on the European Olympic classes circuit and, like the recent French Olympic Sail Week in Hyeres, France, attracted the world's best sailors. The 1996 Gold Medalist 470 team, Eugeniy Braslavets and Igor Matvienko of the Ukraine, finished fourth just behind Foerster and Merrick, while Slovenian and Portuguese teams took first and second, respectively.
Practice at major events is important as the countdown to the United States Olympic Trials in St. Petersburg, Florida, September, 1999, continues. SPA featured 51 nations, with a total of 832 boats and 1,215 competitors in eleven Olympic classes. Temperatures hovered in the 60's and 70's during the five day event, with mostly light winds and plenty of rain and drizzle typical in the Netherlands this time of year.
Since a successful Olympic campaign requires training in various parts of the world, it is common for two, or even three, boats to be purchased by one team and situated on different continents. Foerster and Merrick were pleased to take delivery of their new MacKay 470, which arrived from its New Zealand birthplace in time to compete in the SPA Regatta. Dave MacKay, the boat builder himself, accompanied the 470 to its owners and helped with measurements and a final check for readiness. Thanks to sponsors CompuCom and Kitty Hawk, Foerster and Merrick are able to face the world's best competition with the world's best boat. After two days of rigging and tuning, Foerster and Merrick captured first place in the very first race sailed in their well prepared MacKay. "I guess our new boat is not too slow," Foerster observed. "We are very happy with it."
The SPA experience allowed Foerster and Merrick to continue to grow as a team. Sailing together in only their second major regatta, they still were getting to know each other better. Race five presented a difficult choice right off the starting line: "Bob thought there was more wind on the right [side of the race course], but I wanted to continue toward the shore like a normal lake sailor would do," Foerster recounted. Following the skipper's advice, they continued toward shore and rounded the top mark in 30th place. Thankfully, their expertise allowed them to round 30th at the weather mark and still finish sixth overall--but this proved an excellent opportunity, among many, for Paul and Bob to build confidence in each other and to learn each other's way of thinking.
After ten races, Team 2000 held second place overall, in spite of an "OCS" (On Course Side) score in race nine. They used their one allowed throw out for that race. "Four boats could win going into the last race," Foerster calculated. "For us to beat the Slovenians, we would have to beat them by eleven points. For us to beat the Ukrainians, we would have to beat them in the race. For us to beat the Portuguese, we would have to finish right behind them."
The last race brought winds of 10 - 17 knots, higher than in the first ten races and required a few adjustments in rigging before the start. Higher wind also called for faster and smoother boat handling, as Paul discovered during the first beat when he got the tiller stuck in the traveler and the boat got caught in irons. They recovered from the tiller hazard quickly but soon we re faced with a completely new obstacle: "Near the weather mark, we came in on the starboard layline and there was a twenty-story windmill right in the way. There are about five of these in the water next to the shore," Paul observed. A duel around the windmill ensued with the Ukrainians. Foerster and Merrick chose the low road to leeward of the mill and found themselves blanketed from the wind by the huge tower, while the Ukrainians sailed easily through on the weather side. In spite of this, Team 2000 squeaked out a better last mark rounding than the Ukrainians and beat them in the regatta. "A good regatta for our new boat, but we have a lot of work to do in order to do well consistently," Merrick commented.
Since then, the two have competed in the RIISA Regatta, held in Barrington, Rhode Island, June 13 - 14th. Stormy conditions prevented sailors from competing the first day, but Team 2000 took advantage of the down time to complete some boat work on their USA-stationed 470 and to shop for spare parts.
A 470 class meeting was held the first evening of the event to work out details of shipping the sailors' USA stationed boats to Spain for the 470 Worlds in September. The United States Olympic Sailing Committee is providing a container for the top two ranked men's and women's teams to ship their boats overseas for the Worlds Regatta only. Although Paul and Bob have a new MacKay stationed in Europe, that boat will be shipped to Sydney, Australia, in July for the Pre-Pre Olympic Regatta which is also scheduled for September, 1998. The logistics of an Olympic campaign are very complex indeed.
Day two of the RIISA regatta proved very successful for Paul and Bob with finishes in the three races of first, second and first. Approximately twenty 470s competed in the event, including some from Canada, Jamaica and Bermuda. All of the top USA ranking men's teams were present except Morgan Reeser and teammate Kevin Burnham, winners of a Silver medal in Barcelona in 1992. Although Reeser was not present to spar against in this event, Team 2000's practice in European regattas is definitely increasing their edge against the rest of the top North American teams. To sum up the final race Foerster said, "We had a fun fast race and no one got close to us. We won by 200 yards," in spite of spinnaker problems on the first downwind leg.
At the time this article is being published, Foerster and Merrick will be competing in the KIEL Regatta in Kiel, Germany. Their summer schedule includes many European stops, each one a stepping stone to Sydney 2000; each one a practice session to make their will to win "worth a nickel," or better yet, worth a Gold medal.
Special thanks to:
For more information about Paul Foerster's Olympic campaign, see his web page:
http://www.rcyc.org/team_2000 or contact:
Carrie Foerster
JYpie@aol.com
972-203-9190 phone
972-203-9466 fax