High Life A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Friendly Sea Rivals : 2 High School Sailing Teams Share Coach but Still Compete Intensely

As far as high school rivalries go, the one between Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor is as intense as any. When these schools compete, pride is as much a factor as athletic or intellectual ability.

But amid this turbulence there is also a peaceful coexistence--a calm, if you will, on the water. For there, student sailing teams from both schools practice together, travel together and even share the same coach--Bill Wakeman, who is an English teacher at Newport Harbor as well as an accomplished sailor.

This togetherness has caused a change in some perceptions of the rivalry.

“Because of the sailing team, I have good friends over at Harbor, and my attitude toward their school has changed for the better,” said Darren Sutherland, a Corona del Mar senior and sailor since age 11. “I’m not into the rivalry between Corona and Harbor. To me, it’s just another game.”

And from the rival school?

“I’m more open-minded about other schools because of my friendships on the sailing team,” said Chris Johnston, a Newport Harbor junior.

The Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor sailing teams have been practicing together since 1972, and Wakeman has been their coach from the beginning.

“These kids have known each other since they were 8 years old, and friendly competition has existed for years,” said Wakeman, adding that there has never been a problem between the schools.

“I do this simply on a volunteer basis because it’s a heck of a lot of fun,” said Wakeman, who has been sailing since he was 9 and competed on the college level for Harvard.

The teams practice in the Newport Bay Turning Basin every Monday and Wednesday during April and May, the competitive sailing season.

They sail in individually owned Lasers, which are one-man boats, and yacht club-owned Collegiate Flying Juniors, which are two-man boats.

Three local yacht clubs--Bahia Corinthian, Balboa and Newport Harbor--offer both teams financial support as well as loan them sailboats, a coach’s boat and racing equipment.

“I think that the clubs should support the schools’ sailing teams because that’s where the future of yachting is coming from,” said George Leitch, vice commodore of the Balboa Yacht Club.

The 4 1/2-hour practices begin with members rigging their boats at one of the three yacht clubs and then making their way to the Turning Basin, which can be time-consuming, depending on weather conditions. When both teams arrive, the short practice races begin. Wakeman tries to get in as many races as possible to emphasize the importance of starting techniques.

The boats sail a triangular course that takes about 20 minutes. Though these are informal practice races, there is still some competition between the teams as well as between teammates.

Many well-known local sailors have graduated from the schools’ sailing teams and some have gone on to collegiate success. All-American sailors from Corona del Mar include brothers John (UC Irvine) and Mike (Charleston) Pinckney; and from Newport Harbor, Hugo Schmidt (USC), Alan Andrews (Stanford) and Jack Franco (UC Irvine).

The teams have had great success on the national level, with Newport Harbor winning six national high school championship regattas and Corona del Mar winning five, with its latest coming in 1987.

This year, both again competed in the national championships May 12 and 13 at Annapolis, Md. The regatta was held at the U.S. Naval Academy in conditions that were less than perfect.

On the first day of competition, there was no wind and only two races were held before the race committee canceled the remainder. The next day, the weather took a turn for the worse, with the wind blowing at a gusty 20 m.p.h., accompanied by heavy rains. To compound that, there were three- to four-foot waves.

The Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar teams did not fare well. In the double-handed (two-persons in a boat) competition, Newport Harbor finished 11th and Corona del Mar 12th in a field of 20 teams. In the single-handed (one person) competition, I skippered the Corona del Mar boat to a 32nd-place finish in a field of 34.

“We were expecting to do a lot better, but it just didn’t come together in the end,” said Sutherland, who skippered the first Corona del Mar boat, which had senior Chris Attencio as the crew and sophomore Keith Geffen as back-up crew. The second Corona del Mar boat was skippered by sophomore Bill Ward, with sophomore Josh Nichols as his crew.

Newport Harbor’s first boat was skippered by junior Jory Twist, with freshman Creighton Oyler serving as his crew and Chris Johnston as back-up crew. Sophomore Ben Benjamin skippered the second boat, with sophomore Christina Allen, the only female member of either team, as his crew.

Over the years, Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor appear to have had two of the most successful sailing records on the West Coast. Tina McKinley, a youth racing coordinator for the U.S. Yacht Racing Assn., attributes their success to “the culmination of a consistent coach who brought the teams into varsity status and parental support.”

The success can also be attributed, at least partially, to the teams’ combined practices, where the more people sailing helps to make the competition stiffer.

And even if the sailors are from rival schools, there’s enough camaraderie to keep the sails full.