Does anyone know what kind of suit Ogletree is wearing in the picture John posted? I think Kevin Burnham in the 470 was wearing the same thing. Looks like the thing for us fair guys....Dan

In the light stuff the 49er might still win - just. In any sort of wind the T would be lapping the 49er

I'm pretty sure those are just oversized wet suit rash guards...the concept is to reduce windage by covering everything with it.

Bruce: "Kristin" is supposed to be "Kristian", and he is about 1,90 meters tall. He has a great sense of humour, so you could probably avoid an black eye if you called him feminine

Btw: He goes by the outname "krille" among friends..

In response to Rolf

(A lot of what I wrote came from Charlie's after dinner speech at GBCC.)

Yes, they are using Cuben( I added it to my spell checker). Cuben is more of a process than a fiber. They take a woven material, compact it or modify the weave and then laminate one or both sides. They make fabrics from many types and combinations of materials, Kevlar, spectra, carbon, Dacron, etc.

I heard about a Cuben Dacron fabric as an industrial balloon/inflatable material a while back, but I never thought about it for sails.

I have looked at Cuben fibre a couple of times in the past. In the same weight as normal sail cloth, Cuben is much more durable. in a 20% lighter version, it should be at least as durable as dacron/pentex. My only experience was cuben spectra for a club racing jib. For 40% more money we got about 3 times the life. It's expensive but, it doesn't blow out, in fact the spectra version doesn't give at all until it just disintegrates.

Carl:
I always believed that Cuben was a special fibre/cloth, and not something you could make from polyester. All literature I have seen on the subject, Cuben sails, speaks about Cuben fibre and carbon as far as i can remember.
Thanks for sharing that piece of information..

Now, do you know more about the exclusiveness of the agreement ? Is it the use of the mould, or is it the process of making Cuben from polyester that is exclusive ?

Hopefully, the ITA magazine "Fly Tornado" will give us the whole story in a while..


Rolf

Rolf,
No offense intended, just clarification.

I have seen pleanty of good women cat sailors,, but never on Olympic level Tornado

Hey Rolf, I came close to the Eastern Norway boarder, in January 2002, I was studying at Mid-Sweden U, at Ostersund, and we went to see a frozen waterfall and ice-house, pretty cool.

Once again, no offense to anyone, ok?

regards,

Bruce
USVI

Incorrect

Paul Elvestrom sailed with his daughter - Trine (I think)

I know at least three women who did Olympic campaigns on Tornadoes as skippers -- one in Canada and two in the U.S. Pease Glaser did two campaigns, I believe, and ranked pretty consistently in the top 5 on the U.S. Tornado team.

Paul Elvstrom raced a Tornado in one Olympics with his daughter as crew, and they narrowly missed out on the bronze medal.

The women skipper on the T-Boat was Melodie Gummer from Kigston, Ont, CAN.

Bruce: No problem, I was making a joke, and Kristian would also just laugh about this kind of typo..

Darren Bundock was sailing with his girlfriend, Alexandra (Alex) Goltz, when they won the open german championship 2003. They beat both Gaebler/Struckman (the german olympic team) and Polgar/Landenberger. I guess they would have made a strong team in the olympics as well.. The only problem would be that Alex is german while Bundock is an ozzie

Rolf

Wow,

I remember seeing her on her mint green Sailcraft Tboat back when I was a kid sailing with my Dad...boat name was "Peppermint Catty".

Mike.

Sounds like there were some tough conditions today in Athens. John and Charlie slipped to 2nd overall, but are still a few points ahead of AUS.



Hope that they can wrap up the series with more pictures like this one!

But it was Brazilian Torben Grael who won in the Star class and with a race to spare. Quite a feat, considering the competitors.

He is now the only sailor to win 5 Olympic medals ever.

If his brother (and Tornado silver medalist) Lars wouldn´t have lost his legs, Brazil wouldn´t be last in Tornado today .

what do you mean "lost his legs"?

Any of these just about cover it

Following is an updated schedule for the final two Olympic sailing shows. This was by e-mail from Gary Jobson:

Thursday, August 26 - midnight on the Bravo network
Saturday, August 28 - 4:00pm on CNBC

Olympic Regatta: Lovell/Ogletree Assured of Gold or Silver

ATHENS, GREECE (August 26, 2004) - The USA's Tornado sailors John Lovell(New Orleans, La.) and Charlie Ogletree (Houston, Texas/Columbia, N.C.)secured themselves at least a silver medal today when they won the first of two races and followed up with a second-place finish. With one race to go on Saturday, Aug. 28, they are now in second overall, only three points behind the Austrians, who are the only ones that could keep the USA from gold on Saturday.

"We won the start in the first race and got a good jump on the fleet immediately," said Lovell, who led at every mark of the course. "In the second race, we did the same thing but started consolidating--covering the guys we needed to cover, in particular Austria and Argentina--and finished second.

"Saturday it's one big race for gold," continued Lovell, who counts the Austrians as one of the fastest Tornado teams in the world. "It's not going to be easy. Today they were in tenth and we thought 'we've got them!," but then, in both races, they grinded back."

Lovell said the Tornado reserve day tomorrow would be spent taking the entire boat apart and putting it back together again, to ensure that no mechanical breakdowns will foil their plans. They also will study the scores and go over all the different race scenarios that could happen. As match-racing champions (they won last year's International Catamaran Challenge Trophy), Lovell and Ogletree are ready for the one-on-one racing with Austria that might present itself.

"We have a much better drop race than the Austrians, so we have two choices," said Lovell. "We jump on them early and drive them to the back of the fleet or just go out and win. We'll make that decision on game day."

There's more about it in the net then I thought. Anyway, a drunk idiot "driving" a motorboat run over him and the legs could not be saved.

Now for the other side of the story on Thursday's racing:

Australia’s Tornado crew Darren Bundock and John Forbes sailed a brilliant race to lead around all marks and win race ten at the Olympics by 57 seconds today.

But … a 12th in race nine – the first race of the day - cost them their shot at winning either gold or silver medals in the last race of the series on Saturday. Bronze is now the only currency within their reach.

Both races were sailed in a light south-easterly sea breeze of 7-10 knots for race nine, 6-8 knots for race 10. The left-hand side of the course paid dividends with more pressure in both races.

However, the right did pay for a while on the second beat of race nine. Bundock/Forbes dropped from ninth on this leg while the Austrians, Roman Hagara/Hans Peter Steinacher, who rounded the bottom mark tenth, went right and rounded the second windward mark in third place.

Hagara/Steinacher finished second to the Americans John Lovell/Charlie Ogletree, who led around all marks, to lead the series with 33 points from Lovell/Ogletree 36, with the world champion Santiago Lange/Carlos Espinola third on 45 after placing 4-3 today.

Bundock/Forbes are another five points behind; equal on 50 with an old Australian adversary, Mitch Booth, now sailing for the Netherlands, crewed by Herb Dercksen.

The win in race 10, built on a good start towards the pin followed by a long starboard tack all the way left, set up the Australians’ race 10 win.

So what went wrong in race nine? Darren Bundock explained: ‘We did exactly what we did in the second race, nothing different.

‘On the second upwind, everyone was racked up and we just took a little dig out for a couple of hundred metres, then went left. And the Austrian, who was behind us, went hard right and was third to the top mark.

‘In the second race, we got a good start and headed further left than anyone. The Americans were below us and asked if they could tack.

‘We said sure and then they tacked and went across below us. We just went going a bit further.

‘Once you get in front it’s easy, you just cruise around all day. Back in 12th, it is not so easy.

‘I guess it’s now all out for the bronze medal.’