The 2008 Olympic Games might be over but on Sept. 13, the Stonington Borough kept the torch burning as it transformed into “Olympic Town, Connecticut” by the hundreds of sailing enthusiasts gathering at the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club (SHYC) in anticipation of the 2008 Special Olympics sailing regatta.
Hosting the event for the second straight year, SHYC proudly welcomed 76 athletes and partners, making the event the largest Connecticut Special Olympics sailing regatta since the sport was first introduced as an event in 1994. SHYC Sailing Foundation President Bob Fountain was extremely pleased with the event.
“I think it went remarkably well,” Fountain said. “The weather cooperated for the most part and we had two great half-days of sailing. It was a little rainy on Sunday, but as far as wind conditions it was perfect for sailing and all the athletes were able to get out on the water on both days and compete.”
The athletes and partners came from three separate Special Olympics sailing programs located at Pilots Point Marina in Westbrook, the Riverside Yacht Club in Riverside, and, of course, SHYC. Fountain explained that the event and the preparation for the event was a collaborative effort by hundreds of people.
“If you think about it, an event like this is broken down into hundreds of smaller components over the course of the two days,” Fountain said. “For the event to go off so seamlessly speaks volumes for everyone involved—the athletes of course, but also the partners and all the volunteers.”
The event was kicked off by a sizeable parade, which ran from the SHYC parking lot down to Wadawanuck Square and then back up Water Street and featured an armada of fire trucks and other vehicles as well as all of the partners and athletes and the Olympic torch. Once back at SHYC, the opening ceremonies began, which featured speeches from local politicians Diana Urban, Andy Maynard, Ed Haberek, and Don Maranell, to name a few. After a lunch provided by Mystic Market, the racing began.
Split into three categories, racers either manned a 420, which held one athlete and one partner, a J24, which held two athletes and two partners, or a Highlander, which held three athletes and three partners. With two separate racing courses designed by SHYC Sailing Foundation Sailing Director Bill Furgueson, the 420s raced on the smaller course while the two bigger boats raced on the larger course. And as Furgueson will report, the competition was fierce.
“These athletes are good sailors and getting better all the time,” Furgueson said. “We trained every Tuesday evening all summer.”
Fountain seconded Furgueson’s opinion.
“The athletes were incredibly excited and enthusiastic as they always are for this event,” Fountain said. “They [the SHYC-based athletes and partners] trained all summer long with Bill [Furgueson] for this event, once a week from June through August, so they were definitely ready to go. In fact three of the athletes have progressed so much in their sailing skills that they were able to skipper their boats. It just shows how much work they really put into this and how much they truly love to sail.”
While medals were presented to all participants, they were broken into the three traditional categories: gold, silver, and bronze. The athletes and partners earned their medals based on their cumulative times from the 20 races that took place over the course of the two days. Though sailing was clearly the main event, a separate competition was also happening back at shore which Fountain hopes will continue and grow.
“All of the athletes that were scheduled to sail did,” Fountain said. “But we also had some athletes that had expressed an interest in croquet. So we set up a croquet tournament and it went quite well. It’s something we’ll continue next year if there’s still interest and we hope it grows so that the event is like a two-ring show with one competition out on the water and one back here on dry ground.”
Aside from the two competitions, other events and activities at Olympic Town included a touch tank set up by the Mystic Aquarium, knot tying lessons, hands-on activities with the Stonington Garden Club, and local artists creating images from the event.
And as was the case after last year, Fountain declared that SHYC is committed to hosting and sponsoring this event for years to come.
“When we volunteered to host the event last year, what we were really interested in seeing was, you know, can we do this? Will it work here and will the community support it?” Fountain said. “The answer was 100-percent ‘Yes!’ So we went from hosting it the first year to now sponsoring the event and we’ll continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”
SHYC announced that they also made the commitment to sponsor one athlete, based on performance, from Connecticut to go to the Special Olympics National Games every year and to the Special Olympics World Games every four years. And while the generosity and support of the Special Olympics by SHYC is established, Fountain was quick to point out that it wouldn’t be possible without the overwhelming support of the community and the generous donations by individuals and local businesses including Arrow Paper, Mystic Market, Friendly’s Ice Cream, and a successful fund-raiser hosted by the O’Callahan family.
“It’s really just a purely positive event,” Fountain said, “and it’s great to see how much the community supports it, because it’s a wonderful thing for the town of Stonington to host.”
The SHYC Sailing Foundation was founded as a nonprofit in 2002 by members of the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club. The foundation’s mission is to inclusively provide to children and adults a sail education program that will preserve the region’s maritime heritage and ensure that all participants learn about seamanship, sportsmanship, safety, and responsible fun on the water. An important component of this mission is outreach to those in the population identified as under-served.