County Boardsailors Have Trouble Creating Stir Without Any Wind

Lanee Butler and Jayne Fenner know that theirs is a sport subject to the capricious ways of nature.

And nature has been obstinate here at Kerr Reservoir, the site of the U.S. Olympic Festival boardsailing competition. For three days, there has been little or no wind.

On Thursday, the first scheduled day of competition, the reading was zero knots, not wind enough to stir a sock, much less fill a sail. Friday, the field of 15 boardsailors managed to get in only three races of the nine that were planned in the three-day event. Saturday, the final day of competition, they sailed two race, enough to complete a four-race series, plus and allow each sailor’s low not to count.

It should be little surprise that there is no breeze here on a man-made reservoir 200 miles from the Atlantic Ocean during the stillness and blazing heat of a Carolina July, and only wishful thinking by organizers who hoped the doldrums might break for the Festival.

And as Butler, 17, puts it, “The yachting was probably the last thing on their minds.”

Butler lives in Dana Point, and Fenner, 15, lives in San Juan Capistrano. They both attend Dana Hills High School. Despite the lack of sailing and a 90-minute commute to the lake each day, they said they enjoyed the festival, particularly the mingling with other participants.

As for sailing, they will be just as happy to get back to Dana Point Harbor, where they do most of their practicing.

They have been sailing seriously about four years, and racing for about three, and they have risen quickly to the top of a sport so new that it is still dominated by teen-agers.

By virtue of their national-class standing in the sport, they are granted “independent physical education privileges” at Dana Hills High and may leave school early to practice.

Competition in their sport at the college level is negligible now, Butler says, but by the time she and her contemporaries are in college, she expects that to change.

Only one woman and one man will represent the United States in the Pan-American Games, but neither Butler nor Fenner won a spot in the recent trials. Though there will be no women’s competition in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Butler and Fenner hope there will be in 1992.

For the most part, they are not planning ahead, but enjoying the racing and the travel now. Next year, they will travel to New Zealand for the World Championships.

Although they are fairly small--Butler is 5-feet 4-inches and 130 pounds and Fenner is 5-6, 110--the light winds here may have given them a slight advantage over some of the larger and stronger male opponents. Butler finished 11th and Fenner 13th. Butler and Fenner were the only females among the 15 competitors.

Fenner grew up sailing, and raced a small boat for a time, which made her transition to boardsailing easier. Four years ago, on the day she sold her Sabot, she bought a sailboard.

Butler’s family had been boardsailing a long time before she finally took it up. She first tried it when she was 10, but she was not yet strong enough.

“Finally, when I got big enough to pick up the sail, I started to go down to the harbor every day.”

During the summer months, especially in this pre-Olympic year, they compete frequently and travel often.

“We haven’t been home since July 9,” Butler said. “We’ll be home for two weeks after this and then not again until the second week of September.”

Festival Notes

Former Cal State Fullerton soccer player Mike Fox and Chapman College’s Doug Neely were members of the West team that defeated the East, 4-2, for the gold medal. . . . Sandy Vessey of Huntington Beach was the goal keeper for the silver medalist South water polo team.