Captain Jack seventh at Worlds

Hun sophomore is top sailor

By: Justin Feil
   Jack McCarthy’s Hun School classmates know that he is a sailor, and they know that is fairly accomplished. Just how accomplished they will find out soon.
   "They don’t know yet I sailed in a world-wide event," said the Princeton Junction resident. "It’ll be a nice story to tell when I get back."
   McCarthy has good news to share when he returns for his sophomore year at Hun. On Thursday, he completed the 2007 Sunfish World Championships hosted by the Brant Beach Yacht Club. McCarthy finished seventh out of 100 competitors in the junior division that represented 12 countries. Alexander Zimmermann of Peru was the overall champion.
   McCarthy entered the final day of scheduled competition sitting in sixth place among sailors 17-and-under before having to deal with light-wind conditions on the final day. McCarthy was fourth after the first day of sailing Monday.
   "Monday was very windy and very choppy," McCarthy said. "Keeping the boat flat was very challenging. Tuesday, it was too windy to sail. I was set to go. (Wednesday) was pretty windy, but not as choppy. You were nose-diving every two seconds, but it was OK."
   McCarthy, who sails out of the Brant Beach Yacht Club that his family resides near in the summer, was given a wild-card entry into the event, but he has performed like one of the best.
   "I’ve sailed pretty well in this before," said the 15-year-old McCarthy, who finished second two years ago in the midget division for 13-and-under sailors at the 2005 Sunfish North American Championships in Lewes, Del. "I am a little bit (intimidated). I haven’t been sailing the Sunfish that much. I did in the last week to know how the boat sails. I am a little intimidated."
   It hasn’t shown. The competition was originally scheduled for 12 total races — three each day for four days — with the worst two race results from each competitor being discarded. McCarthy finished 56th, 52nd and 58th out of 100 to end up in fourth overall after the first day.
   "I thought for this regatta, I thought maybe 70th would be good in the races," McCarthy said. "There are the 100 best sailors in the world. Fifty is amazing for me. I’ve never sailed in an event of this large importance.
   "Overall, I didn’t know where it would put me in the junior fleet. The leading junior got second in the Pan Am Games. All the other boats, we’re being really competitive."
   The second day, McCarthy still sat fourth after six races — halfway to the final standings — before finishing sixth after finishing 84th, 69th, 61st and 73rd in Wednesday’s four races.
   "I went down a little bit," McCarthy said. "I don’t know what I did wrong. Maybe I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I just felt like I was going slowly.
   "I’d say for the first two to three races, it was just thinking (about strategy)," he added. "The fourth race was just to keep the boat flat. I was getting a little tired. I was cold. I wanted to go in."
   Race courses are set up in a windward-leeward direction. Boats start heading upwind around a temporary buoy, then sail back downwind to where they began around another temporary buoy, then back up and down and up around the same buoys again to finish the five legs of each race. Each leg is approximately seven-tenths of a mile and the average race takes about an hour and a half for all boats to complete.
   "Half the race is determined by your start," McCarthy said. "Another 25 percent is reading wind shifts and deciding what side of the course is favored over the other. I’d say the other 25 percent is keeping boat speed up and keeping it flat.
   "There’s over 100 boats on the starting line. Getting out and getting clear air is what makes or breaks you."
   McCarthy has become a more proficient sailor with each year of experience he has gained. He started sailing at age 6. His grandfather, Thomas Kimmel, bought him his first boat, an Opti beginner boat. McCarthy entered his first regatta at 9.
   "My grandfather sails and I guess he wanted me to do it," said McCarthy, who is on the crew team at Hun. "I started right away. My mom also sails so there was some support there. I enjoy being out on the water. It’s an escape from all the other stuff I have to do, like summer reading. It’s really enjoyable.
   "During the summer, it’s an everyday thing," he added. "It’s wake up, have breakfast, go sail. During the fall, I do the Brant Beach Yacht Club Fall Series, which is four weeks in a row. It’s only an hour or two. I like it."
   McCarthy also sails other types of boats. He sails the Mariner, "an old-person boat, as they call it," he said. Last year, McCarthy and Kimmel finished second in the Presidents Fleet division at the 2006 Mariner Nationals on Long Island, N.Y. This July, the pair was sixth at the Mariner Nationals, also hosted at Brant Beach.
   "The Mariner is two-person," McCarthy explained. "I crew with my granddad. I’ll steer for one race and he’ll steer for the other race. For the Mariner Nationals 2007 at Brant Beach, I skippered the whole thing."
   McCarthy also sails the Laser. He’s spent more time competing in the Laser than the other two boats recently.
   "The Laser is a very, very technical boat," he said. "It’s very flippy. Adjustments to the wind are key. The Mariner, you put up two sails and go. There’s not really any key adjustments to make, which is why it’s a nice boat. You can just go out and sail. The Sunfish, the only big thing is you pull the sail up and go. The sail, trim and adjustments make it a technical boat. It can be sailed as a fun boat or as a serious racing sailboat.
   "The Laser and Sunfish are the same length, 15 feet. The Sunfish weighs a little more. The Mariner is 19 feet. Most of this year, I’ve raced a Laser. On Sundays, I sail the Mariner. The Sunfish, I didn’t do much racing with the Sunfish until this week."
   The rules for the Sunfish class are strict. Each boat is uniform, leaving the race results up to the sailor’s skill. Even McCarthy’s home waters at Brant Beach were no advantage for him at the Worlds.
   "Maybe if you sail in a lake or river and know where the current is best (there is an advantage)," he said. "Brant Beach is such an open area, there’s no advantage except maybe knowing how the race committee sets the marks up. You’re used to what they do. The only unfair advantage is that people are better than me."
   Not many are better, and the best are asked to explain just how they got that way following each race. At the conclusion of each race, the winner shares their strategy with the other competitors. McCarthy hopes to be in that position and will have two more years to compete in the junior class before moving up to the senior division.
   Two more years of stories to build.