Dana Point’s Butler Takes Her Solo Sailing Skills to Barcelona

At least Dennis Conner had a crew.

All Dana Point’s Lanee Butler will have is her board and her sail when she takes to the water in July for the Olympic sailboarding competition in Barcelona.

Olympic sailboarding?

Yes, medals again will be awarded in the sport, which has been part of the Olympics since 1984. However, this is the first year men’s and women’s competitions will be held separately. In ’84 and ‘88, men and women competed in one, open competition.

While most people are used to windsurfers flying acrobatically over the surf, the Olympic competition is a simple race. Think of it as an America’s Cup race for one.

And that’s how Butler, 22, likes it.

Although Butler also is an avid sailor who helped UC Irvine win a sailing national championship in 1990, she pointed to the freedom in windsurfing.

“If you want to go out sailing, you need a crew,” Butler said. “Windsurfing is great because you can just throw your board on top of the car, and you can go sailing anywhere you want.”

Butler, a Dana Hills graduate, has traveled to competitions on the East Coast and in Europe as part of her preparations for the Summer Games. Her travels also included a training stint in San Francisco, when Butler took her Olympic-sized board into the bay to practice.

“The wind was blowing at about 20 knots,” Butler said. “When we started pulling out our boards, which have big sails, everyone was looking at us like we were nuts.”

The official 12-foot Olympic board that Butler was using has a sail that measures 7.3 square meters, and it is designed for low-wind conditions. The more common boards, which are better suited to windy conditions, are only 7 feet to 8 feet in length with a sail about half the size.

Butler’s budget was also small, so she has scrambled to find ways to raise money for her trip to Barcelona.

Body Glove and Da Kine helped Butler with her equipment, and she has also received support from the Dana Point Yacht Club. Butler is even selling “Lanee” Olympic T-shirts to help raise money.

Butler almost didn’t qualify for the Olympic team.

In early May at the U.S. trials in Ft. Pierce, Fla., Butler had to defeat Jane Fenner of Sarasota, Fla., in the 12th and final race to secure the berth.

All Olympic competitors will be in 10 regattas during the first week, with each racer earning points for placement. The first-place finisher will receive zero points, second-place three points, third-place five points, and so on. After the 10 races, the competitor with the lowest point total wins the gold medal.

Butler figures she has a good shot at winning a medal, especially considering she was ranked as high as No. 3 in the world in 1990. She took a sabbatical from Irvine last year and will begin her senior year this fall.

At 15, Butler began windsurfing after receiving her first board as a Christmas gift. Lanee and her sister Lynn grew up sailing, and knows she is often at the mercy of the elements. “A lot of stuff is out of your control in racing and a lot depends on the wind,” Lanee Butler said. “But overall, I think my chances are pretty good.”

Michael Gebhart of Ft. Walton Beach, Fla., who will represent the United States in the men’s competition, won the bronze medal at the 1988 Seoul Games.