So often we read about the stars in our sport, and with good reason. Instructive also is the opportunity to learn more about the true foundation of sailing; unsung heroes, amateurs and self-taught sailors who simply love the sport for itself, and not as a means to an end. We are pleased to present this article by Airwaves writer Joe Cooper. Enjoy.
Newport, being the sailing capital of the world that it is, has a full compliment of local sailors including a large cohort of high school and college sailors. Jimmy Gieseke is a sophomore at URI. I first met him and his twin Johnny as freshman at the Prout High school when they joined the sailing team. I had a chat with Jimmy on a cold blustery day in Newport in January—
S1D: Jimmy, giday mate, thanks for coming out. Just paint me a quick picture of YOU, are you a local?
JG: Yes I was born in Providence and lived in Newport all my life.
S1D: What was your first introduction to sailing?
JG: Our dad had sailed as a kid and growing up and we would rent the Rhodes 19’s at the Navy base when I was little and it just went on from there. We got put into the Sail Newport Opti program as soon as we were old enough, 6 or 7 and it went on from there.
S1D: Were you and Johnny in the same boat?
JG: No, we were in the same classes but Sail Newport’s policy is one sailor per Opti, so if your are going to learn to sail, they say, you’re going on your own. So I did Opti’s all the way thru, the whole deal. But I was not really, ya know into sailing or got interested in competitive sailing until up until my Sophomore year in high school, when I went to Rodgers (high school in Newport) and started team racing.
S1D: What is it about sailing that gets you jazzed?
JG: It’s always different. You go out there and its going to be a light day, windy day, shifty anything, it is never the same.
S1D: Do you, have you, done much sailing WITH Johnny?
JG: Well in the Opti’s we were in the same class but in our own boats. We are different kids of sailors, I like, kinda taking charge, steering and Johnny likes to pull ropes.
S1D: So you steer and Johnny does the mast?
JG: (laughs), yeah, that’s it. No, no, he knows what he is doing, but we are just different types of sailors, I can’t really explain it.
S1D: What is the most fun about going sailing, then what is the least fun?
JG: Getting hyped up with friends, you know, just having fun with my friends. I have never been much of a solo sailor you know the kind of person who likes to go out sailing by my self. I like to have someone to share the experience with. Say like the Ida (Lewis Yacht Club Distance) race, having a group of kids all my age to get on a J111 and go out and kick butt and have a great time with my friends is very special. Yeah and it is really great for Fred (Van Liew part owner of the J-111 Odyssey) to let us use boat and go race it, amazing.
S1D: Would he be active in the operation of the boat, or do some coaching or…?
JG: He will do some coaching Mostly he will just sit and let us go, he will take charge if he feels it is necessary…
S1D: Stopping you doing something too dopey…?
JG: Yeah…laughs
S1D: ok and the worst part?
JG: Ah, doing something that’s not fun…
S1D: Are you ok when it’s blowing like stink?
JG: Oh yeah, that is really fun too, pushing the boat, what ever the boat I am sailing, pushing myself hard too, that is really fun, but ah, working on boats, you know fixing them, that is the least fun part, which is kinds funny with our 49’r. You heard about that?
S1D: No
JG: Ah, well we got a free 49’r hull and mast from a friend who was trying to get rid of it
S1D: (laughs) what could go wrong…
JG: yeah what could…The hull had no gelcoat, they had taken a sander to the hull down to the glass, the deck was coming apart, it was a wreck, total garbage. So we went on Craig’s list, found a guy with a 49’r whose boat had capsized in the parking lot in a blow, and smashed up the rig, but the hull was fine so we bought that hull and put the other boats mast in it, and then it has been nothing but problems….Chuckles
JG: So we have had a time figuring out things, you know the mechanics, like standing rigging, the info we got on the lengths was wrong- we found out after we had them made up…so the D1’s have two turnbuckles on them coz the wire was too short, stuff like that. So we can sail it but it is a hand full and we don’t really know what we are doing.
S1D: can you elaborate in that? In the scheme of high school sailors, you two are pretty good and have a wide swath of experiences…
JG: well not so much not knowing what we are doing, but the idea of twin traps, steering from the trap, the 75 things that have to happen, so its pretty physically demanding, you know and in what sequence and what happens if you get out of sequence, it is pretty tricky that way, and it is not really set up properly. And there are a million tweaky things, rake, bend, pre-bend that are not on a 420, a club 420 or even an I-420 has only half a dozen strings and that’s it.
S1D: Have you sailed other sporty boats, a 505 say or something between a 420 and a 49’r?
JG: No, I have not sailed a 505, nothing like that but we have sailed cats some, the –F 16’s some.
S1D: How was that?
JG: Oh that was fun, cats are cool boats.
S1D: So how was that, technically, going fast, but kind of upright, how did it feel, what is your sense of the cat versus the 49’r feel wise?
JG: Quite different, it is a whole different feel to the Cat. They go so fast with relatively little effort, they are just kinda go with the flow and are usually pretty flat where as on the 49’r we spend a lot of time just trying to keep it upright, steering around waves, more demanding steering wise, let alone going fast.
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