by Duane S. Farrar
The third World Blind Sailing Championships were held in Weymouth, England, from June seventh through the thirteenth. This competition, held every three years, attracts the very best blind sailors from around the world and for this event there were 21 teams representing nine countries, including five teams from the United States and, for the first time, a team from Norway. Other countries represented were Finland, France, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, and Sweden.
A blind sailing team is composed of two visually impaired crew and two sighted guides. One visually impaired sailor is the helmsman, or "skipper," and is responsible for steering the sailboat around the course. The other visually impaired sailor mans the foredeck and is responsible for trimming the jib, or fore sail. The sighted guides are experienced sailboat racers and they give verbal instructions to the visually impaired crew and are responsible for tactics and race strategy. One of the sighted guides will also usually trim the main sail. In order to make a sailboat go fast around a race course and maintain boat speed each crew member must perform their job skillfully and in coordination with the others.
In international blind sailing a team can compete in one of three divisions: B1, B2, or B3. These classifications are based on the level of vision of a team's visually impaired crew, with B1 sailors having the least amount of vision and B3 sailors the most.
I found it hard to believe that, a mere nine months after stepping on board a sailboat and putting my hand on a tiller for the first time, and with only four months of actual on-the-water experience, I was competing in this world-class event as the helmsman for the Massachusetts B3 team. I had been a participant in the first Sail for Light program held in Boston last September and just two weeks after that I was racing in my first blind sailing regatta. Astonishingly, I placed third in that regatta and I haven't stopped sailing or racing ever since. Over the winter I was asked by Arthur O'Neill, the director of the SailBlind program in Massachusetts, if I would be interested in competing in the World Championships. Before the snow from our April Fool's Day blizzard had finished melting we began practicing and racing in Boston Harbor.
In mid-May our crew placed second in the national championship held in Newport, Rhode Island. With that good performance in hand we felt confident that we could go to England and have a chance to sail competitively.
For the World Championship regatta there were seven teams competing in each division with seven races in each division. The races were held in spacious and historic Portland Harbour, which had been a major launching point for the invasion of Normandy in World War II. There were two classes of sailboats used for racing: Hunter 707's and Beneteau First Class 8's. Because there were only 14 boats available for 21 teams it meant that the B3 division would have to sail in both, creating an additional challenge for our crew. It also meant that we had twice as many practice sessions as the other divisions in the two days leading up to the start of racing on Monday, June 9.
On the first day of racing the B1 team from Norway, which had two fifteen year old crew members, surprised the more experienced and heavily-favored teams by winning the first race. It was a great win and it put everyone on notice that the level of international blind sailing had risen dramatically since the previous regatta in 1994 and that it was going to be a very exciting and competitive week.
And indeed it was. And the United States had its best showing ever in a World Championship. The Massachusetts B1 team, helmed by past Ski for Light participant Matt Chao, won the silver medal while the Texas B2 team won the gold medal. The B3 division was dominated by the British who won six of the seven races. Great Britain won the overall team trophy as well.
As for my B3 crew we placed as high as second in one race and finished fifth overall, a very respectable showing. My most exciting personal racing moment of the week occurred during our final race on Friday the thirteenth when I nearly went for an unplanned swim in Portland Harbour. We had just started the race and were completing our first tack. I ducked so low to avoid the boom as I crossed to the other side of the Hunter 707 that I slipped under the lifeline and popped right through. I found myself falling backwards, upside-down, and head-first for the water. I caught the lifeline with my left arm as I was falling out of the boat while I tried to hang onto the tiller with my right, but it slipped out of my hand and the boat swung up suddenly into the wind. It was only at this point that Lyn Comfort, my sighted guide, who had been looking forward, realized that there was something amiss in the back of the boat. I managed to pull myself back into the boat, retrieve the tiller, and we continued on with the race.
Just as exciting as the racing was the opportunity to meet and get to know the blind and sighted sailors from the other countries. In particular I downed many pints of beer with the Northern Ireland squad. One evening I was talking with Michael Beggs, one of their visually impaired sailors, about our mutual interest in cross-country skiing and I discovered that he had attended the Ridderrennet in 1983. At that moment I felt the world get just a little bit smaller.
It got a little smaller still on Friday night during the awards dinner. I was presented with a Team Japan sweatshirt by Noriyuki Segawa, the visually impaired helmsman from the Japanese B3 team and in return I gave him a U.S. Blind Sailing team jacket. It is a common post-regatta custom for sailboat racers to exchange uniforms. The Japanese team had been our closest competition during the week so it was quite appropriate that we carried on this tradition with them.
Since my return from England I have been sailing and racing every week, eagerly preparing for our next blind sailing regatta this September in Boston. If you attend this year's Sail for Light program, you will have the opportunity to come out on the water in Boston Harbor and watch us race. Already I am looking ahead to the next World Championships, which may take place in Newport in 1999, dreaming of calm seas, steady winds, intense competition, and, hopefully, a gold medal.