U.S. Olympic sailor with Wareham ties visits area yacht club

Jul 25, 2015

The idea of sailing in the waters of Buzzards Bay is exciting for almost any boater, and the same goes for some of the members of the Sperry U.S. Sailing Team.

Four members of the team, including one with Wareham ties, and its general manager were on hand at the New Bedford Yacht Club in Dartmouth Friday night, where they discussed the ins and outs of sailing competitively at the international level.

One of the topics of conversation revolved around the potential for the 2024 Summer Olympics to take place in Boston, with the waters of Buzzards Bay already having been identified as the venue for sailing should Boston be named the winner.

Present was two-time Olympian Stuart McNay, who spent summers in Wareham as a child, attended Tabor Academy and learned to sail at the Beverly Yacht Club in Marion.

At the event, McNay expressed a love for sailing locally.

“In the summer especially, it's a fantastic place to sail,” he said. “There’s a reliable sea breeze, and a great community of sailing. This is well known as one of the best sailing venues in America. We had a fantastic training camp on Buzzards Bay and it would be a treat to get some 470 racing here.”

“When news came out, there was some debate,” said U.S. Sailing’s Managing Director Josh Adams, who’s from Rhode Island but who also graduated from Tabor Academy in 1990. “What's there to debate? It’s got to be one of the best places to sail on the east coast.”

McNay and partner Dave Hughes recently won gold at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Weymouth, England in the Men’s 470 class. Recently, the two have been experiencing a run of success. In 2016, McNay will head to his third games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil with Hughes.

“They’ve been on a roll here,” said Adams.

McNay said he attributes he and Hughes’ recent success to trying to progress each and every day they enter the water.

“We’ve shown continual improvement,” he said. “We continue to put tools in our tool box. It’s been a rewarding experience because of our continued progress. We’ve been working in all types of conditions . . . and it’s starting to coalesce.”

Adams said the goal of the tour was to visit yacht clubs around the country “to bring the sailing community closer” to the team for the 2016 Olympics.

In August, several representatives for the team will travel to Brazil for what's known as the “Test Event,” which also serves as the Olympic trials for several of the countries in attendance.

“It’s one of the most beautiful sailing venues in the world,” said Adams, “ and also the most challenging.”

Others on hand were Sperry Team members Briana Provancha, who sails in the 470 class, Trevor Bird, who sails in the 49er class, and Cindy Walker, a Paralympic sailor in the SCUD 18 class.

The group fielded questions from audience members on everything from sailing for the U.S. team to their upbringings in the sailing world.

Bird encouraged young sailors in the audience to continue to work hard if they want to be successful.

“You just have to do it 1000 times and then do it another 1000 times,” said Bird. “It's a lot of work just to be decent.”