[Sonar] Lake Geneva Great Lakes Championship

[Bert Foster]

Hi All,
I just got back from the Paralympic Regatta in Newport RI.  It was my 
introduction to Paralympic Sailing and what an eye opener.  I learned 
a great deal about Paralympic Sailing and think that with the right 
team and funding I may be able to win the Paralympic Trials in Oct 
2007 and go to China in 2008.  However, that would require a $100,000 
budget for going to 14 national regattas (some Paralympic and some 
Able-body) over the next 13 months, plus training time with the team 
and coaches all year long.  That's a lot of travel and its associated cost.

While I am trying to put together my Paralympic program we will go to 
the Lake Geneva Great Lakes Championship, leave the boat in Lake 
Geneva and pick it up on Oct 6th to go back out to Newport for the 
Paralympic Pretrial s Oct 11th thru the 15th.

I found out I can NOT crew a Paralympic Sonar because I'm not strong 
enough to trim the main in strong wind with one arm.  However, I did 
get "Classified" by the international doctor as a "4", and that is 
great.  "1" is a high Quad, 7 is a single below knee amputee, a low 
para is a 3.  Maximum of 14 points on a boat of 3 people and only 2 
on the rail.  So, with me being 4, I can have a 3 Para on a bench in 
front doing the jib and a 7 in the middle doing the main.  No 
spinnakers are used.  We do use wisker poles that launch 
automatically from the cockpit.

I'm fortunate that I was able to hook up with 2 para #3s who have 
done a total of 4 Paralympic campaigns and want to do bow for me.  I 
have 1 #7 who has done 2 campaigns and wants to do middle, and a 
second who may be interested and one #4 who could do either.  So, its 
now time to put the resources together to activate the campaign.

See you Thursday,
Bert


At 10:51 AM 8/22/2006, John Sligh wrote:

>Hello Fellow Sonar Sailors,
>
>The Great Lakes Championship Regatta is in Lake Geneva again this 
>year September 30 & October 1.  Allow 1-2 days before for traveling 
>down to Lake Geneva.  If you've never been it's a good time.  Gusto 
>is going for sure and it would be great to get 3-4 more boats to make the trip.
>
>If you're interested in going please let me know.  If your regular 
>crew can't go don't let that stop you.  I'm sure we can put some 
>teams together.
>
>
>John Sligh
><mailto:jsligh at earthlink.net>jsligh at earthlink.net
>
>
>
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