Olympic Sailing Trials : A New Class Tries to Repeat United States Gold Rush at Seoul

Victory at sea? It was an unprecedented rout: three gold medals and four silvers in the seven classes.

McKee and Buchan, Buchan and Erickson; Haines, Davis and Trevelyan. They led the United States’ Olympic sailing team to that sweep in 1984.

Where are they now? A few have returned, but most have scattered, leaving an improbable repeat to a new generation.

The 1988 Olympic gateway to Pusan, South Korea, opens for 356 sailors in 8 classes--a women’s 470 dinghy class has been added--when two weeks of trials start at three venues Tuesday. The Star and Soling keelboats are at San Diego; the 470s, Flying Dutchman, sailboards and Tornado catamarans at Newport, R.I., and the one-man Finns at Marblehead, Mass.

Only one boat qualifies in each class.

As for those ’84 champions:

Seattle’s Jonathan McKee, who with Carl Buchan won the Flying Dutchman gold at Long Beach, has been coaching his younger brother Charlie and Long Beach skipper John Shadden in their 470 effort. Buchan is helping Dennis Conner in his America’s Cup campaign.

Buchan’s father, Bill, after considerable waffling, finally decided to re-up in the Star class at age 53 and try for a set of gold medal cuff links to go with his watch fob of three world championships.

But he’ll be doing it with a different crew--Mark Brink--because long before Buchan made up his mind, Steve Erickson joined Paul Cayard, his crewmate on USA in the America’s Cup. Last February, they won the ’88 Star worlds.

The Soling golden boys haven’t sailed together since the day they clinched the medal. Skipper Robbie Haines is managing the North Sails loft in Huntington Beach. Ed Trevelyan went back to law school. Rod Davis is sailing master for New Zealand’s Cup effort.

Besides Bill Buchan and Erickson, the only medalists back for another bid are silver winners Scott Steele, sailboard; Steve Benjamin, 470, and Benjamin’s crew, Chris Steinfeld. However, with his own sail business a distraction, Benjamin hasn’t been competitive recently.

Steinfeld has been crewing on a Tornado catamaran with Gary Knapp. They are the class favorites since ’84 silver medalist Randy Smyth dropped out of the trials two weeks ago because of his commitment to Conner’s catamaran America’s Cup project.

Finn silver medalist John Bertrand has joined the world match racing circuit, while his ’84 antagonist, Russ Silvestri, has been stalking San Diego’s Brian Ledbetter in the U.S. fleet.

Everybody--sailors, organizers, casual observers--agrees on one thing: They made a mistake when selecting the venues for the trials.

It probably won’t be very windy at San Diego, Newport, R.I., or Marblehead, Mass. It probably will be very windy at Pusan.

Some sailors are especially good in heavy wind, others in light wind. But now there is a strong chance of selecting a light-air team for a heavy-air Olympics.

Jonathan Harley, director of the Olympic Yachting Committee for the U.S. Yacht Racing Union, said: “All of the reports we got (from Pusan) were for light-to-moderate winds. We selected our trials sites on the basis of that.”

But some of the sailors were literally blown off the race courses at the Olympic Practice Regatta last September in South Korea, and indications are that those were only a little worse than normal conditions, which also include a surprise 3.8-knot current.

The problem is that the South Koreans didn’t take the subtleties of sailing into account. Before the Olympics, according to one report, there was only one keelboat and two dinghies in the country.

Also, those reports about light wind? When the Americans got there, they found that the South Koreans had placed their anemometer on the lee side of a building, out of the wind--like placing a rain gauge under a roof.

By then it was too late.

“We couldn’t change our trial spots,” Harley said. “All the work was too far along.”

Harley, based in Newport, R.I., hopes that the three venues will be hit by freak conditions.

“Newport, you can get days when it blows real hard,” he said. “A couple of weeks ago it was foggy and still blowing 25 knots. These guys from California couldn’t understand why the wind didn’t blow the fog away.

“I don’t know much about San Diego except what I’m told. But I think our sailors are versatile enough, and we can train them to be competitive in all conditions.”

The selected team will train from July 30 to Aug. 14 at Long Beach, where wind-swept beaches could yet be a springboard to success.

A look at each event:

AT SAN DIEGO

Star (25 boats)--Three-time world champion and ’84 gold medalist Bill Buchan, 53, says he is “just showing up,” and four rivals do rate slightly above him on recent performances. They include the last three world champions--Paul Cayard (‘88), Ed Adams (‘87) and Vince Brun (‘86)--and ’88 runner-up Mark Reynolds. U.S. Olympic prospects: probable gold medal.

Soling (22)--John Kostecki, winner of two of the last three world titles, had the longest and most intense campaign. But class veterans Dave Curtis, Dave Chapin, Ed Baird and Craig Healy may have caught up. Historically, winning the U.S. trials in Soling is more difficult than winning the Olympics. U.S. Olympic prospects: probable gold.

AT NEWPORT, R.I.

Men’s 470 (26)--Long Beach’s John Shadden has consistently been the top U.S. finisher in international regattas over the past year, but he could lose his edge in light wind. His rivals to watch include Morgan Reeser--the one-time front-runner--along with Tom Kinney, Bill Draheim, Luther Carpenter and ’84 silver medalist Steve Benjamin, who has been struggling to keep up. U.S. Olympic prospects: possible medal.

Women’s 470 (14)--There is no clear-cut favorite, but a well-defined top four of J.J. Isler, Susan Dierdorff Taylor, Lisa Niece and Pease Herndon, in no particular order. Allison Jolly of Valenica has been saving her money from the world circuit but working hard enough to rate a chance. U.S. Olympic prospects: probable medal.

Flying Dutchman (11)--Like figure skating, this class surfaces in the United States only in an Olympic year, making the ’84 gold more remarkable. Paul Foerster and crew Andrew Goldman recently won the European championships in a big surprise, moving into contention with Long Beach brothers Ron and Steve Rosenberg and J.B. Braun/crew Bill Kenney. U.S. Olympic prospects: possible medal.

Tornado (23)--With the withdrawal of ’84 silver medalist Randy Smyth, Gary Knapp--a Flying Dutchman campaigner in ‘84--becomes the favorite. Knapp is joined by Steve Benjamin’s former 470 crew, Chris Steinfeld. Pete Melvin of Long Beach is also a contender, and Henry Bossett rates an outside chance. U.S. Olympic prospects: possible medal.

Sailboard (47)--Scott Steele won the ’84 silver in the biggest U.S. surprise, but a half-dozen rivals are right there with him now. The field--still overmatched by the Europeans--includes veterans Mike Gebhardt, Eric Krebs and Sean Hawes and 17-year-old newcomers Robert Normann and Bert Rice Jr. U.S. Olympic prospects: possible medal.

AT MARBLEHEAD, MASS.

Finn (45)--A big field with only three clear contenders. Navy Lt. (j.g.) Brian Ledbetter of San Diego has won the U.S. nationals four straight years, but Russ Silvestri appears to be peaking and will be pressing to win the berth he feels he lost on John Bertrand’s litigation in ’84. If those two get over-involved in their rivalry, Scott MacLeod could sneak in. U.S. Olympic prospects: probable medal, possible gold.