He’s Searching for Olympic Star Quality : After Near Miss in ‘84, San Diego Sailor Paul Cayard Is Trying Again

There isn’t much margin for error in Olympic yachting. Paul Cayard of San Diego knows that well.

Four years ago, Cayard finished second by .6 points in the Star class Olympic trials. A nice effort, but meaningless because each country is allowed only one boat per class in the Games.

“That was tough,” Cayard said. “Only one person wins in this deal, and there are a lot of qualified people. It probably would have been easier to be fourth or third than to finish second by six-tenths.”

Cayard will attempt to make up the difference and qualify for the ’88 Olympics when the Star and Soling class trials begin Tuesday off Point Loma.

He and crew Steve Erickson will be favored, but it won’t be easy. The Star class in this country is so deep that the trials winner is expected to win at the Olympics in September.

“I’m kind of in the forefront right now,” said Cayard, who won the Star world championship in Argentina last January. “However, every (weather) condition has its specialists. This is a light-air place, and that’s not my specialty. I’m better in strong winds. So that will neutralize me.”

Cayard said he’s at such a disadvantage because site selection for the trials was based on inaccurate information. He said the U.S. Olympic Committee commissioned a high-tech weather analysis of Pusan, South Korea, that said conditions would be light air and variable.

“But last year, they had the pre-Olympic regatta there, and it blew 18 to 20 knots every day,” he said.

Cayard said it’s possible that a skipper who sails well in light wind could win the U.S. trial, then face problems in the stronger winds likely to blow in off Pusan on the southern coast of South Korea.

“They made a big mistake selecting San Diego,” he said.

Of the competition in the trials, Cayard said: “Basically, I think it’s boiling down to a four-boat race. There are four really strong people, and then there is a second layer of at least another four that are very good and will win some races. Maybe the (top) four of us will win six of the 10 races. Then the second tier will win three of the remaining four, and then somebody else will win one.”

Joining Cayard and Erickson as leading contenders are the teams of Ed Adams and Tom Olsen of Newport, R.I.; Vince Brun and Hugo Schreiner of San Diego, and Mark Reynolds and Hal Haenal of San Diego.

Adams won the 1987 world championship, and Brun was the winner in ’86. Reynolds was second to Cayard this year.

A veteran to remember is Bill Buchan, 53, who teamed with Erickson in 1984 to win the Olympic gold medal.

Back then, Cayard, who is now 29, had just started sailing his own Star boat.

He grew up in San Francisco and was introduced to sailing at age 8 by a neighbor.

“I started sailing in the bay when I was 13 or 14,” he said, “and when I was 15 I joined the St. Francis Yacht Club. I crewed a lot in my early years for people in 505s, Fireballs, 470s. I sailed Lasers myself.

“I crewed for my first time in a Star in 1978 at the world championships in San Francisco. We finished fourth, and that got me the bug. I really liked the boats a lot.”

The Star is 22-feet 8-inches, second in length only to the Soling in Olympic yachting. A keelboat, it weighs 1,485 pounds and has a sail area of 285 square feet that makes it tough to handle. It is the oldest class of one-design racing in the world and, with the exception of 1976, has been sailed in the Olympics since 1932.

Cayard continued to crew Stars until 1983, then bought his own boat and took on Ken Keefe as his crew.

“We had a good year,” Cayard said. “We won the Western Hemisphere championships, took third at the (1984) world championships and were rolling really well. Then we wound up a little short at the Olympic trials.”

Cayard moved to San Diego after the trials and began working as a sales representative for North Sails. In that capacity, he has expanded his sailing experience.

Often, owners of larger boats who purchase sails through Cayard will have him sail with them in various regattas around the world.

“That’s how I make a living,” Cayard said, “and it helps because I pick up things from big boats that help me in the Star, and I pick up things like sensitivity in the Star that help me in the big boats.”

Eventually, Cayard said he would like to skipper an America’s Cup yacht. He worked in Tom Blackaller’s 1983 and ’87 campaigns as a tactician.

But for now, he is concerned only with earning the one Star berth on the U.S. Olympic yachting team. He says competing in the Games never has been his life’s passion, but it still is an important goal.

“I don’t think it’s as big for a sailor as it is for other athletes,” Cayard said. “But it’s a big thing. It only comes once every four years, while the world championships are every year. So you only get five or six chances at it.

“After the last trials, when I didn’t make it, I felt bad for a while. Then, over the next three years, I got it out of my mind. Then, as it comes again, you get really interested and you realize that whoever wins this is probably going to win the gold medal.”

Yachting Notes

The Star and Soling trials are scheduled from Tuesday through July 16, with a reserve day July 10 and a lay day July 11. . . . Racing will begin at 1 p.m. daily, 3 1/2 miles off Point Loma.