I agree with Steve on the issue of talent - it does indeed exist. I often refer to the "spectrum" of talent on the water in my area when talking about specific sailors at the top of the fleet and why I think they are there. One end of the spectrum is meticulous preparation, study, precise-to-the-mm settings, and by-the-book reaction to any combination of conditions - it takes talent to pull all that together into a successful race. On my private scale, Bob Curry owns that end of the "spectrum." The other end is fuzzy logic, feel on the tiller, seat-of-the-pants, stringing together pearls of luck and happenstance to win major events - nobody should be able to maintain consistent performance under those conditions, but there are undeniably guys that do - Kirk Newkirk reigns at that end of my private scale.

In between are all manner of top sailors in the southeast US that I frequently see (or have seen) on the racecourse. The perfect balance between these two extremes? IMO, Randy Smyth is a guy that stands at the fulcrum.

This thread has been really fun and interesting. Thanks for all the diff perspectives. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />