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Over the weekend of October 26-28, the club, located on the San Francisco waterfront, hosted the Fall Olympic Classes Regatta for competitors in the Europe, Finn, Laser and Mistral classes, as well as the non-Olympic Byte and Vanguard 15 classes. (Complete regatta results are available at:
www.stfyc.com/race-office/2001/fall_Olympic_results.htm.)

For Olympic-class competitors the regatta was the first event that will count toward the rankings for the 2002 US Sailing Team. A full explanation of the US Sailing Team ranking system, which is based on attendance and performance at a series of qualifying regattas, is available online:
www.ussailing.org/Olympics/2002/rankingsystems.htm.

The US Sailing Team, named annually, recognizes the top-five sailors in the classes chosen for Olympic competition. For the 2004 Olympic Regatta, scheduled for August 13-29, in Athens, Greece, those nine classes (11 divisions) are: Europe (women); Finn (men); 470 (men and women); Laser (open); Mistral (men and women); 49er, Star, Tornado (all open); and Yngling (women).

Based on finishes at the St. Francis Fall Olympic Classes Regatta, the U.S. competitors currently ranked top-five follow, by class:

Europe: Posting three-bullets to open the seven-race series, ICSA All-American Krysia Pohl (Alameda, Calif.), dominated not only the U.S. women at this event, but the three men who competed in the 16-boat Europe fleet. Unfortunately, Pohl's sixth-place finish in race four opened the door for Denmark's Anneli Bolund. Bolund, who never finished out of the top-three, won the series with 11 points to Pohl's 13. Susannah Carr (San Francisco, Calif.); Jaime Mack (Seattle, Wash); Casey Pelletier (Alameda, Calif.); and ICSA All-American Christin Feldman (Grosse Pointe, Mich./Portland, Ore.), take second through fifth place in the current rankings based on their finishes.

Finn: In the 10-boat Finn class, '98 Finn National Champion Darrell Peck (Gresham, Ore.) posted five bullets in the seven races to top the leader board with seven points. Mo Hart (Santa Cruz, Calif./S. Portland, Maine); Henry Sprague (Long Beach, Calif.); Andrew Kern (Chicago, Ill.); and Patrick Weaver, (Los Altos, Calif.), respectively, round out the top-five in both the regatta and the current rankings.

Laser: The Laser class, with 33 competitors, had not only the largest turnout for the regatta, but the youngest victor. High school senior Andrew Campbell (San Diego, Calif.) demonstrated his consistency with finishes of 2-2-(6)-2-1-2-2 to total 11 points. Andrew Lewis (Kahala, Hawaii); ICSA All-American Brett Davis (Largo, Fla.); and Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla.), all won at least one race and tallied 23, 24 and 26 points, respectively, to finish second through fourth in both the regatta and the current rankings. Peter Phelan (Santa Cruz, Calif.) was fifth with 31 points.

Mistral: Sailing in a fleet of nine boards, ICSA All-American Peter Wells (Newport Beach, Calif.); Steve Bodner (Toledo, Ohio/San Francisco, Calif.); Kevin Jewett (Plymouth, Minn.); Andy Wells (Sierra Madre, Calif.); and Al Mirel (Sunnyvale, Calif.) hold, respectively, first through fifth place in the Mistral Men's rankings. As the only women competitors, Kimberly Birkenfeld (Myrtle Creek, Ore./Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and Lynn Olinger (San Francisco, Calif.) are first and second, respectively, in the Mistral Women's rankings.