RECENT COVERAGE : January 17, 2008

If you want to see a changed man, catch up with John Manderson.  Almost overnight he’s been transformed into a guy who is grinning from ear to ear.  John is on sabbatical.  Call his office number and the message says that he’ll be away from the December through May.  As for his residence in New Jersey, it’s locked up tightly and the neighbors are keeping an eye on it.  His car?  “I don’t need it here.  It’s up north.”  John is a marine biologist with a PhD turned full-time Star sailor for the next four months. 

Like most of the other Star, Yngling, Laser and Laser Radial sailors who have come to Miami to train for upcoming Grade 1 events, John has rented an apartment for the sailing season and he gets around town on his bicycle.  Unlike many of the other sailors, nothing is on the line for him.  Competing in the Olympics means nothing to him.  All he wants to do is learn how to sail a Star over the next five months.

“I’m a marine biologist sailing for joy against the best sailors in the world,” said Manderson over a glass of red wine.  He doesn’t have the strict regimen that a lot of the sailors on the circuit have, but sailing for ten or twelve days in a row has helped to tone the weekend warrior and put him in a great frame of mind.  Manderson hasn’t totally put his profession behind him.  In fact, does research in the morning and is working on a project with the University of Miami’s Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, a campus that he can see every time he points his Star toward the northeast on Miami’s Biscayne Bay. 

My predictions are that this Snipe skipper known for his heavy air prowess will figure out the Star.  His sabbatical may come to an end at the Star Western Hemispheres in Geneva, New York this May, but he’ll shine as a weekend warrior in District 1 events this summer and there will always be a twinkle in his eye when he reflects on his winter in Miami.