RECENT COVERAGE : February 20, 2008
 If you want to meet someone who has been involved in winning sailing programs, here’s your opportunity.  Debbie Capozzi of the 2008 US Olympic Yngling Team of Barkow, Capozzi and Howe is a winner.  She was captain of the Old Dominion sailing team for two years and a key contributor when the team won the ICSA National Championship title.  She has traveled the globe with Sally Barkow and other phenomenal women sailors helping Sally steer her way up the charts of the ISAF women’s keelboat and match racing rankings.  During the past four years, Debbie has had sailing successes independent of the Yngling team.  She has been part of Jeff Eklund’s winning Melges 32 campaign aboard Star and has taken the helm at various match racing regattas.

Debbie earned a BA in education at ODU, but learned “how to win regattas and events” from her ODU sailing team coaches which included Mitch Brindley and Mark Zagol.  Situated on the water, ODU attracts talented sailors and seems to be a significant part of the US Sailing Team’s feeder program.  With Sally Barkow, Corrie Clement and Anna Tunnicliffe as her team mates during her college sailing career, Debbie skippered and crewed her way to ICSA All-American status.

After college “sailing a Yngling was an easy decision,” said Capozzi.  Sally Barkow, who graduated a year ahead of Capozzi, was determined to continue to sail competitively.  “Both of us wanted to sail in a boat with more than one person.  The Yngling gave us the opportunity to sail together.”  Barkow made it easier by lining up a Yngling and getting it ready for their first Yngling regattas together in 2003 - the North Americans and the Rolex Miami OCR.  “We won the second event that we sailed together and decided that it worked.  Fortunately, we had enough money to buy a boat and had support from our families,” recalls Capozzi.

Capozzi, who loves sailing other events, being outdoors and relaxing at home during her time away from the Yngling team’s training and racing engagements, notes that the team made a lot of progress in a short period of time and has been dedicated to sailing together since 2004.  As for the lack of other US Yngling teams during the last couple of years of this quad, Capozzi admits that it would have been nice to have other US team mates at international events, but they have had success in working with foreign teams as training partners.  “It takes a high level of commitment,” said Capozzi. 

Capozzi credits some of the team’s success to the changing of the guard that seems to have taken place in women’s sailing in the US.  “We’re pretty young, not married and we are committed through 2008.  We’ve been able to put our personal lives on hold.  We have the ability not to have a job and have had tremendous support from US Sailing.  This quadrennium represents the first time that many of the members of the US Sailing Team have not been struggling to make ends meet during their campaigns.  The support, especially from US Sailing, has enabled us to work with the best coaches available.  We would not have been able to achieve what we have done, without the coaching and support,” explains Capozzi of the Yngling squad’s circumstances.

If anything, Capozzi and her team mates are good and stepping back and reassessing and evaluating their sailing performance.  “We had sailed a lot of different events and boats between the Olympic Test Event and the MOCR.  The MOCR represented the ideal time to smooth out our teamwork and to work on different aspects of racing such as fleet management and upwind and downwind speed.  We were really happy with our speed and are comfortable with the aspects that we worked on.  We know that our equipment is functioning and reliable,” revealed Capozzi of Team 7’s preparations for the 2008 World Championships. 

When asked about continuing on through the next Olympic quadrennium, Capozzi asserts that the team is 100% focused on the 2008 Olympics, and will “take a step back and reassess what we did wrong and right with this campaign following the Games.  I’m really excited about match racing being introduced and definitely see another campaign in my future.”

Follow Team 7 in their quest for the Gold in Qingdao at www.Team7Sailing.com.