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Sailor Information - The team are highly motivated to take on the World's best over the coming years. Having both previously been involved in separate campaigns the team feel they have a much greater understanding of what Olympic Sailing is about and are now ready to step up to the next level.
With the goal of a gold medal in 2016 in mind the team feel starting now is very important, as it is under 8 years until 2016 Olympic games and under 7years until the trials for this games, if left any later we would run out of time for our goals to be realistic. In any other class this would be a realistic time scale sailing full time and Star is becoming no exception. So to achieve Olympic Gold the time to start to ensure a successful campaign is now.
Latest News
Unlimited Sailing Team's John Gimson and Ed Greig have had a very busy and successful 6 weeks of sailing with regattas around the globe in the men’s Olympic keelboat.
The Bacardi Cup in Miami at the start of March was the first regatta - one of the biggest regattas the team will compete in this year, the entry list being a who’s who of sailing. The racing was very tight in the 67 Boat fleet but the Skandia team GBR duo finished the regatta with a consistent score line and very respectable 15th overall meeting their goal.
Two weeks later the team had shipped their boat back to the UK in preparation for Hyeres OCR in April, but kindly Jud smith lent them his boat in the US for the Western Hemisphere Championships in Mississippi, sailing out of Pass Christian Yacht Club. The team finished 8th overall, most of the regatta was sailed in light fickle winds with a day being lost to tornados, thunder storms and 70+ mph winds.
The boat arrived back in the UK just in time for the lads to head down to the South of France for Hyeres Olympic Classes Regatta. The regatta was very good boat speed practice for the team, with similar conditions everyday boat speed improved over the week. After 15 races the team went in to the medal race in 4th place on equal points with the Greek team in 3rd and one point away from the American team in 2nd. So from these 3 teams who ever beat who in the medal race would be 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively. In a stiff 18 to 20 knot breeze, John and Ed had a good start at the pin and took control of the other 2 boats, covering who ever was closest to them for the rest of the race successfully taking the 2nd place in the medal race and the event. Finishing 2nd overall in this regatta moved them up to 4th overall in the ISAF Sailing World Cup standings.
The Skandia Team GBR Star team is also largely supported by unlimitedsailing.com and powered by Doyle sails and would like to thank Eamonn O’nolan for all his support, Jud Smith for his help, Ian Barker for his great coaching support and the Royal Southern Yacht Club for providing them with a great training base.
Finally on a very sad note, the team are very sorry to hear of the recent loss of Richard Estaugh, and would like to send their condolences to his family and colleagues.
“Richard was a great inspiration and my first sailing hero. I first properly met him age 14, he took me under his wing during my youth sailing years, and gave me a large amount of support and help. From on the water sailing tips, and showing me how sails are made, right through to securing my first equipment sponsors. I am so thankful to Richard for what he did for me, and the big part he played in my sailing to date. He was a very kind, modest man and a very talented sailor who I will never forget” John Gimson
Great start to season for Gimson and Greig
Unlimited Sailing’s John Gimson and Ed Greig have had a great result for their first Grade 1 Olympic Classes Regatta in the Star men’s Olympic keelboat.
The Skandia Team GBR sailors scored a 13th at Miami ocr the First of the ISAF Sailing World Cup events for the star, which was well inside the team’s goal of a top 15 finish.
After a hard winter’s training out of the Royal Southern Yacht Club in Hamble, the team left the UK very confident in their boat handling and ready for a month of training in Miami with a focus on boat speed and racing.
Arriving in Miami on the January 5, John and Ed joined former Etchells World champion Jud Smith as tuning partners. Jud has been in the Star class for just over a year and has very quickly moved up to the front of fleet. Along with coaching support from Larry Sutor, and lots of help from Jud, the young British team got up to speed very quickly.
Although both John and Ed are happy with their result in Miami the pair felt they learned a lot of big lessons during the regatta and they believe there is more to come, which is a good confidence boost for the team.
John and Ed would like to thank Jud Smith, Larry Sutor for all their help in Miami and Eamon O’Nolan of Unlimited Sailing.com for his ongoing support. Also thanks once again to the Royal Southern Yacht Club for providing such a good training base over the winter.
Results
1 Merriman, Rick Trinter, Phil
2 Szabo, George Peters, Rick
3 Marazzi, Flavio Morland Pedersen, Petter
4 Campbell, Andrew Nichol, Brad
5 Diaz, Augie Prada, Bruno
6 Smith, Jud Balmert, Brad
7 Doyle, Eric Calder, Steve
8 Ewenson, Geoffrey Dieball, Skip
9 MacCausland, John Murphy, Kevin
10 Macdonald, Andrew Fatih, Brian
11 Dahlman, Mathias Heinonen, Erkki-Tapani
12 O'Leary, Peter Goodbody, Tim
13 Gimson, John Greig, Ed
14 Hagebols, Rodney Finlay, William
15 Whipple, Larry Strube, Mark
16 Buckingham, Jim Lidecis, Erik
17 Negri, Diego BOGGI, LUCIO
18 Jennings, Jack engelhard, federico
19 Cramer, Brian Bjorn, Tyler
20 Serinis, Aaron Ostbye , Brent
21 Anosov, Arthur Dolan, Mark
22 Jorissen, Sander Veldhuizen, Erik
23 Dannesboe, Henrik Morey, Edward
24 Gureyev, Vasyl Korotkov, Voldymyr
25 Coughlin, Daniel Chard, David
26 Johansson, Oskar Bunner, Ivan
27 Burmester, Jens Mehlen, Markus
28 Valasek, Marek Fedyszyn, Todd
29 Hampe, Axel Wagner, Stephan
30 Slippens, Cornelis Zetzema, Wietze
31 Hopkins, Samuel Kaplan, Bart
Good start to 2012 Star campaign Gimson and Greig
Unlimited Sailing team John Gimson and Ed Greig had a great start to their Star Olympic campaign, finishing 2nd in the French and Swiss championships.
The regatta was held in Bandol, with racing in 12 to 18 knots. It was a 17 boat fleet including Olympic Bronze medalist and two times world champion Xavier Rohart.
Xavier sailed consistently winning the regatta but it was very encouraging to see the young Skandia Team GBR team count a score line of top 3 results and a race win, also taking a couple of races from Xavier and finishing only 2 points behind him at the end of the event.
The team have been training out of the Royal Southern Yacht Club who have been very supportive by providing them with use of the club. This has been invaluable as they have found it to be the perfect training venue, craning in and out in the shelter of the Hamble but with quick access to the Solent and the shelter of Southampton water when it is too windy in the Solent.
The team have large support from Unlimited Sailing and will be campaigning as part of the Unlimited Melges 24 team alongside the Star. John and Ed would like to thank Unlimited Sailing for all their support and Eamonn O'Nolan for all his help with their campaign.
The team would also like to thank Peter Harrison for providing them with a boat to use, Andy Beadsworth and Phil Lawrence for their coaching support and Graham and Julia Bailey for their help.
John Gimson
Ed Greig
Ed started sailing at the age of 7 in an Optimist where he became part of the National Optimist squad a few years later. After the Optimist Ed moved into the Laser Radial class where he became part of the National Youth Squad in 1999 and part of the Laser Standard Rig Youth Squad in 2000 and 2001.
After youth sailing Ed moved into the Finn Class and competed in the Finn World and European Championships in 2002 and 2003. Ed mixed sailing with university for the next three years and therefore did less then he would have liked. He became Finn national champion in 2004 and became a member of Skandia Team GBR Transitional Squad in 2005.
Having finished university in 2006 and finished 25th at the World Championships and 28th at the European championships he became part of Skandia Team GBR Development Squad and began to sail full time with the goal for Olympic glory.
In 2007 Ed finished top 10 in Grade 1 Olympic class regattas such as Miami OCR and the North American Mid-winters. In 2008 Ed finished 11th at the Sail Melbourne Regatta and 18th at the 2008 World Championships along with 20th at the European championships meant Ed was asked to be one of Ben Ainslie training partners for the 2008 Olympics.
As a youth, John helmed a 29er and came 2nd in both the Open World and European Championships, he won the Youth National Championships and finished top 3 in every UK event. He has also won the 420 National Championships.
A large part of John's more recent sailing has been as a helmsman in the keelboat sailing scene. He is currently competing manly in the Farr 45 class winning most the regattas so far in 08. His previous achievements include finishing 5th in the European Championship and winning the Red Funnel Regatta in the Mumm30. Many top ten finishes in international melges 24 regattas including a 9th in a very star studded fleet at the europeans. He finished 2nd in Key west & 3rd in the Vice Admirals Cup driving a Ker 11.3 and also won the Skandia Youth skipper trophey in 04.
Before the Star John has campaigned the 470 winning Imperia international regatta in the 470 and finishing 2nd in the National rankings. Also the he campaigned the Tornado until march 08 when the class was droped from the olympics finishing top 15 in Grade 1 Olympic Class Regattas and top 22 in the world as well as top 3 in the national rankings.
