Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, February 26th, 2002
Rio Stopover In Action
The Volvo Ocean Race village in Rio de Janeiro is in full action. Set in
the beautiful Marina da Gloria, the race village is situated on the upper
level of the marina building under a canopy shaped like sails. It is full
of exhibition stands, team displays, cafes and restaurants, while below,
on the white apron leading to the marina edge, the race boats are hauled
out of the water, their rigs resting carefully on trestles alongside,
giving a perfect view for the visiting public to watch, with interest, all
the activity of race-boat preparation, a pit lane if you like.
There has also been plenty of activity on the water, starting last Sunday
with a Robert Scheidt master class. Robert is Brazil’s top dinghy sailor
and also the Brazilian ambassador to the Volvo Ocean Race. He was joined
by Amer Sports Too crewmember, Carolijn Brouwer, to give a group of 15
local under privileged children an opportunity of a life time: some
sailing tuition.
The children are taking part in a project set up by Torben Grael, an
Olympic dinghy sailor himself and a former Whitbread sailor, racing
onboard Knut Frostad’s Innovation Kvaerner in the part of the previous
Whitbread Race. The Grael Project started in August 1998 with a total of
96 children, many of whom did not know how to swim, which was one of the
prerequisites for the sailing course.
The clinic began with a lecture from Robert and Carolijn in the auditorium
at the Marina da Gloria. Robert talked a little about how he got started
in sailing, saying, “I began to sail in the Optimist class and skipped to
the Laser when I was 16. Actually, this is the class I like the best,
because that’s where you can have certain independence. It meant I could
start sailing alone.” He emphasized the importance of being in good
physical shape before a racing, explaining that the position of the body
in the boat also helps to optimize the performance. “That’s why it is so
important to do exercises such as jogging, bicycling or swimming,” he
added.
Carolijn then took over and told the group all about her adventures
onboard Amer Sports Too in the Southern Ocean. “The most difficult
obstacles in the leg were the cold and the icebergs, especially the
smallest ones. The radar does not usually detect the small blocks of ice
that break off the big icebergs. That is why each one of us spent a lot
of time watching out for them. If a boat hits an iceberg, the adventure
can be turned into a catastrophe” she told the mesmerized children.
The lectures were followed by some demonstration sailing from Robert and
Carolijn in Laser dinghies while the children watched with interest from a
powerboat, in the quiet waters just off the marina. Then it was their
turn and all that they had learnt in the lectures was put into practice,
under the expert tuition of Robert and Carolijn, themselves two of the
best dinghy sailors in the world. Each child had the chance to sail with
either Carolijn or Robert on a one-to-one basis in a Laser, and were shown
just how to make this tough little single-handed dinghy perform. These
children have never had the chance before to go in a sailing dinghy and
their pleasure was shyly expressed amongst each other.
Carolijn, who lived in Brazil for several years and has a Master Degree in
Latin American Studies, speaks Portuguese fluently and she was delighted
to work with the Brazilian youngsters and pass on some of her top tips for
fast sailing. Carolijn’s background is in dinghy sailing and the 2000
Olympic Games in Sydney, she was 13th in the 470 class. She is now
training for Athens 2004 as well as sailing onboard Amer Sports Too.
Robert Scheidt is best known for his dueling with Britain’s Ben Ainslie,
whose father was a competitor in the first Whitbread race, for the title
of Olympic Champion in the Laser class in Savannah 1996, where he won a
gold medal, and in Sydney where an older and wiser Ainslie used every
trick in the book to take the gold medal away from him.
After the sailing finished, the children were encouraged to ask Robert and
Carolijn about their sailing experiences.
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