RECENT COVERAGE : January 24, 2008
 “It’s Ruf with one “f” and it’s pronounced like the thing over your head,” said the affable US 2.4 Meter Paralympic sailor.  John Ruf grew up in Pewaukee, Wisconsin sailing scows.  His great grandfather helped to design the E-Scow, so it is no wonder that John was at home steering E’s, M 16’s and X Boats around the lakes of the Midwest. 

When he was in kindergarten, doctors discovered a tumor on his spine.  John spent most of his childhood in and out of hospitals undergoing operations, radiation and chemo treatment and dreaming about days on the water.  With a strong upper body and legs that sort of worked, John could get himself from one side of the boat to another during tacks and gybes.  He was able to get around with the assistance of a cane and crutches until he was a junior in college, but in 1998 after suffering complications following an injury from an automobile accident, John’s mode of mobility switched to a wheel chair. 

One of the saving graces during John’s recuperation was that he had plenty of time to leaf through back issues of sailing magazines.  In a dated copy of Sailing Magazine, John read an article about two things that he had never been exposed to before - 2.4 Meter racing and disabled sailing.  The light went on and he decided to start sailing a 2.4 Meter.  By John’s calculations, “I was never going to win a Gold Medal in an E-Scow.”  A Scow sailor through and through, he admitted, “Scow sailing gets you to the East Coast and down to Texas.”

John’s first 2.4 Meter regatta was the 2000 Paralympic Trials.  The new boat that he had ordered did not show up at the venue, so he scrambled to rig up a used and borrowed boat and finished third in a close regatta.  After the Trials he decided to get serious about his sailing.  Since then, he has traveled to Norway and Finland to sail the 2.4M and later this year he’ll be off to China for the 2008 Paralympic Regatta. 

John, an attorney for RW Baird, an investment advisory firm credits his success to his supporters.  His company has been phenomenally accommodating and lets him take as much time off as he needs to train and compete.  Henry Colie rigs all of his boats and has been very generous in letting John use his rigging trailers as “home base” during regattas.  Carl Horrhocks and Pat Coar have helped him out at a lot of regattas.  “Ideally, having three people helping out at a regatta is perfect.  Two is doable, but for China we’ll have to figure out how to do it with one,” said John. 

John, and a 2.4 Meter field of over 20 boats, has a long stretch of racing ahead with the 2.4 Meter Mid-Winters starting on Friday and the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta starting on Monday.  In both cases, the 2.4 Meters events are being hosted by Shake-a-Leg Miami.