A Love 4 Sailing

Thank you for visiting my website.  Here’s the latest update from Maureen and I.  We are now in the month of May and training has been going well.  We have had 3 week-long training sessions in the last couple of months.  Some of our training has been against able bodied local sailors such as Mark Gaudio, John Pinckney, Jamie Malm and Peter Wells.  Mike Pinckney has been updating the boat with some new rigging, and making sure all moving parts are working well.  With only a hundred days or so left until the Paralympic games.  We have been concentrating on boat speed and boat handling.  Maureen is to travel out to

Newport Beach for some more training in late May.  We may be looking for some assistance during Memorial Day weekend.  Please give me a call if you may be available.

Currently, there is a Paralympic test event going on in

Qingdao, China.  We decided not to attend due to a multiple of reasons.  A couple at main reasons were Maureen’s son is still going through chemo and two trips to China and a three-month period may have been physically overwhelming.  We will be ready for

China.

Below is a recent scuttlebutt article:

TEST EVENT FOR PARALYMPIC GAMES
(May 7, 2008) - Ten members of the US Disabled Sailing Team AlphaGraphics
have landed in Qingdao, China, and are preparing for five days of racing at
the International Association For Disabled Sailing (IFDS) Qingdao
International Regatta. The U.S. has sent five of its top-ranked teams to
this May 11-15 event: in the Sonar, the Paralympic team of Rick Doerr
(Clifton, N.J.), Tim Angle (Marblehead, Mass.), and Bill Donohue (Brick,
N.J.) will race, as well as the second-ranked team led by Paul Callahan
(Providence, R.I.) with Mike Hersey (Hyannis, Mass.) and Roger Cleworth
(Lithia, Fla.) as crew. In the SKUD 18, Scott Whitman (Brick, N.J.) and
Julia Dorsett (Westchester, Penn.) will represent the United States, as the
Paralympic team of Nick Scandone (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Maureen
McKinnon-Tucker (

Marblehead, Mass.) will not attend due to scheduling
conflicts. Competing in the 2.4mR are John Ruf (Pewaukee, Wis.) and Mark
LeBlanc (

New Orleans, La.), ranked first and second respectively. US
Disabled Sailing Team AlphaGraphics members who sit first in the rankings
have qualified to compete in the Paralympic Games in September, also in

Qingdao, China.

Although it is not an official test event, the IFDS Qingdao International
Regatta will serve as the most realistic training the teams and the
organizers will see before the Paralympic Games in the fall. Head Coach
Betsy Alison (Newport, R.I.) says in an email from

China, “There is no
substitute for practicing at the venue in preparation for the big show.”
Alison continues with an analysis of the competition: “The field of
competitors in each of the three classes will be nearly identical to the
Paralympic fleet in September. All of the top teams in each fleet are here.
Racing does not officially start until May 11, but all teams will be taking
to the water for some serious training sessions with a practice race on May
10.” — Read on:
http://www.ussailing.org/pressreleases/2008/qingdao_disabled.asp

=> Curmudgeon’s Comment: Among the US medal favorites are Nick Scandone
(2005 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year winner) and Maureen McKinnon-Tucker.
Scandone battles amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s
disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in
the brain and the spinal cord. Each month Scandone gets weaker, and it is
believed that his absence from this event is also to minimize stress on his
body to insure that he is as healthy as possible for the Palalympic Games in
September.

I want to thank everyone for their support, and I look forward to seeing all of you very soon.  More to come next month.