Sport is no breeze for sailors at ODU clinic

NORFOLK

Take wind. Add water. Enjoy.

To that basic recipe for sailing fun, add "compare bruises."

Competitive sailing, like the sport taught at a weekend clinic at Old Dominion University, can be grueling, participants and their parents say.

As in: Rolfe Glover V, a 16-year-old from Savannah, Ga., runs cross-country to get in shape for sailing.

As in: Racing sailors wear pads - they protect their thighs while leaning wa-a-ay over the side to keep their boats "flat" at high speeds.

"Flat," in lay terms, means "not flipped over and sinking."

And bodies get bonked out on the water as they juggle

lines and tillers and try to avoid swinging booms.

"They come in and compare bruises," Todd Chambers, a parent from Mooresville, N.C., said Sunday.

"I get bruise tans," elaborated his daughter Sarah, 15, meaning all-over bruises on her shins.

She was among about 60 participants in the three-day clinic for non-novice sailors, which winds up today with a regatta, or race, on the Elizabeth River off ODU's campus. They spent much of Saturday and Sunday on the water, doing drills and picking up tips from eight coaches, including Olympic gold medalist Anna Tunnicliffe-Funk, an ODU graduate.

Her brother, David Tunnicliffe, also a former ODU sailor and alumnus, organized the clinic and said he hopes to expand it and make it an annual event. He promotes sailing, and among other things, said he'd like to open a community sailing center.

"You don't need gas.... It's very green - you're using nature," he said. "We've got all this water, but no one's using it."

The students at his clinic do, at their high schools and up and down the coast virtually year-round. Several said they enjoy seeing their sailing friends weekend after weekend at regattas, where they tend to leave competition to the water and have fun together on land.

"Everybody knows it's just a race," Glover said.

Still, he and the others were there to pick up tips on sailing faster.

By mid-morning Sunday, they were lined up two-by-two at ODU's boat ramp, in sunscreen and sunglasses, wet suits and shorts. They rolled their mostly one-person boats down on dollies until they floated in the river, then hopped in and joined the white-triangled armada heading out in a squiggly line.

On the water, boats zipped back and forth, their sails full. A pack of smaller boats - the youngest participant was about 9, Tunnicliffe said - swarmed together like a flock of sparrows.

"It's great for a parent, because I'm in a car with my kids," Todd Chambers said, watching from shore. "It's one sport where parents have to be there."

It's also co-ed and cerebral, he said - like a floating chess match, where you have to think three moves ahead to take advantage of wind and current on a board that's constantly changing.

"I think my favorite thing about it is, you can sail your entire life and never completely understand it," Sarah Chambers said.

But sometimes the thrill is more elemental.

"The best part is going downwind, 'cause you go really fast," said Paul Streater, 13, of Palm Coast, Fla. "It's like you're planing on the water. It's cool."

Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-5221,

matthew.bowers@

pilotonline.com