Amongst all the hype and hum of modern sailing it's always a pleasure to connect to your sailing roots. At a recent conference on growing sailing almost half the participants stood up and said they started sailing in a Sunfish. So it's great to see the Sunfish class hotly contested in this year's Pan Am Games now underway in Toronto. There are other venerable classes included as well - Hobie 16, Lightning, Snipe and the Laser. Most of these classes will bring back fond memories to many of today's sailors.
Connor Bluin sailing in the Sunfish fleet.
The line-up also includes the windsurfing, the 49'er and Laser Radial. Windsurfing, now held in the RS:X class for both men and women, has been around long enough that's its joining the ranks of venerable old classes. The first windsurfer is credited to Newman Darby in 1948 and modern windsurfing began with the windsurfer patent granted to Hoyle Schweitzer and Jim Drake in 1970. Hoyle Schweitzer bought the full patent from Jim Drake and went on to make millions.
A couple of other bright spots in the Pan Am games are the nationality rule and the presence of mixed, male/femaile teams in the Snipe, Lightning and Hobie 16 - cool. It's uber competitive, intense one-design racing that would blow all of us off the course. But somehow, with classes like the Sunfish, Hobie 16, Snipe and Lightning, you feel as though it's a game you could almost play. The sailors are good, really good, but the boats, for the most part, are pretty simple so you sense it's a real, athletic competition between sailors. In those 'Walter Mitty moments' you could even see yourself being competitive in the fleet.
Augie Diaz and Kathleen Tocke racing in the Snipe class.
For some reason competition between nations on simple boats best connects with the soul of sailing. On the other end of the sailing spectrum, the recent announcement of the San Francisco Yacht Racing Challenge is tapping into the same formula. This proposed event promises very similar feeling but on a new, updated 'Super 12' designed as a modern derivative of the classic 12 meters. The Pan Am games highlights both the beauty of sailing and the best of international sailing in classes of boats you could sail yourself. In fact, many of us have probably sailed in one or more of them and would like to hoist sails on any of them right now!
The Pan Am games look terrific, the competion challenging and the boats lots of fun. To follow it and for a full report on the Pan Am games see the Monday, July 13 report from US Sailing. They'll be telling the rest of the story as the games continue. The event runs July 11-20.
Mark Modderman and Grace Modderman are currently leading in the Hobie 16s.
