Seattle Sailors Survive Preliminaries to Get into World Championship Finals

San Carlos, Mexico – Seattle natives Jonathan and Charlie McKee, and the Team McLube boat, survived a poor first day to advance to the final round in the last world championship leading up to the Olympic Games in Sydney. In the first day of the qualifying rounds, which featured very light wind in the morning, they finished with two 7^thplaces, a 14^th place and an OCS (disqualification for crossing the starting line too soon), in four races, leaving them in the bottom half of the 57 team field for the day. The second day had higher winds knocking out some competitors with equipment failures, and forcing the cancellation of the fourth race. The McKees recovered on the second day and finished 5^th, 2^nd and 1^st in three races to win the day and move themselves back into the top half of the fleet in 7^th place. They began the third day well, finishing 8^th and 4^th in the first two races, putting them in 5^th place overall after 9 races. An equipment failure kept them out of the third race, but a 1^st in the final race put them in 7^th place overall at the end of the qualifying round. The 7^th place finish is carried forward into the scoring for the finals as the result of the first race. Also advancing to the finals were Andy Mack of Seattle and his partner Adam Lowry who finished in 13^th position.

McKees Place 6th in World Championship

San Carlos, Mexico – An early major event in this year's 49er competition schedule was the 2000 49er class world championship held March 17^th through 23^rd in San Carlos, Mexico. The event included the best 57 teams from around the world in a three-day qualifying series that narrowed the field to the best 25 teams who advanced to the three-day final. In the 12-race qualifying series, the McKees, and their Team McLube boat, overcame the shaky first day to finish 7^th, and advanced to the finals. In the four races in the first day of the three-day finals, the McKees improved their position to 4^th and looked to be in contention for the gold medal. The second day proved tougher with a 23^rd place in the fourth race of the day dropping them back to 7^th place overall. Unfortunately, the third and final day began with disaster as the McKees had an equipment failure at the beginning of the first race and couldn’t complete the race. As the wind grew to over 20 mph, nearing the limit for this class, the bad luck continued with a capsize in the second race of the day that pushed them back from 5^th place in that race to 14^th, ending their medal hopes. Continuing to push themselves, the McKees finished 5^th in the third race, pulling themselves up into 6^th place overall. The final race of the day was cancelled because the wind exceeded the 28 mph limit for the class, making the results after 11 races final.

In the event, the gold medal went to the Spanish team of Lopez-Vazquez and de la Plata, who never finished lower than 12^th in any race and strung together a 1^st, five 2^nds and a 3^rd in the eleven races. The silver medal went to the German team of Baur and Barth who never finished lower than 9^th in any race and had two 1^sts and two 3^rds. The bronze medal went to the Finnish team of Johanson and Jarvi with nine top-10 finishes. The result, while disappointing for the McKees, included eight top-10 race finishes, demonstrating that they can compete effectively with a world-class field and giving them reason to expect to be in medal contention in the Olympics in Sydney, Australia this fall.