crew for BU in '99. Rich was also voted top Neisa Crew that year. Rich
got this from Jessi Dimock who was an 3-time all-american crew for
Tufts. She sailed with Jon Baker, whom she recently married. Some of
you have not meet Jon yet but he is a three-time all-american from
Tufts, who was runner-up to College Sailor of the Year in 1999 (he won A
divison at Nationals that year) and he has been coaching for BU on
weekends for the past three years. Jon will be running the Hatch Brown
Regatta, Jessi may also be there, and Rich will be there as well. If
you asked these guys a question, they'll be happy to answer it, and it
will be a damn good answer I bet.
Actually, Jessi forward this from Josh Adams, a multiple all-american
skipper from Tufts (Who is a damn good crew too), who got it from Bob
Merrick, an olympic medalist crew. Josh makes reference to Kevin Hall,
an all-american skipper from Brown who is equally talented as a crew. I
certainly know a bit about crewing. In my younger days, when I weighed
about half a cow less, I was a fairly talented and much sought after
crew. We won a lot because the skipper knew how to treat and train a
crew and how to win as a team, because that's what it takes to win,
teamwork. You're nobody without your crew.
Teamwork, here's an example. Lynne Jewell was a great sailor for BU
('82). She led the Terriers to a second place at Women's Nationals.
She is the only women to ever qualify for coed singlehanded nationals
(back then there were no women's single's, just coed's. Now there are
no coeds, only separate men's and women's). After graduation, Lynne
went on an olympic campaign with her crew Alison Jolly. After a year
of
training they were clearly improving but things just weren't right.
Lynne kept telling Alison her job and Alison told Lynne's hers as if
each could do each other's better. Then they got to thinkin', maybe we
can do it better. So they made the switch. Lynne moved to the front of
the boat and the rest is history. They won a gold medal in the Women's
470 class in Seoul. No egos, just teammates working together to make
the boat go faster than everybody else.
-------
From: Rich Bell
Hello,
I am sorry if some of you have already received this, but I thought it
was sweet. It is tough to make the boat go with no one in the pointy
end.
Hope you all enjoy Merriks letter,
later,
Rich
>From: "Jessi Dimock"
>To: "Ramsay Key"
>
>Subject: Re: RE: More
Sailing?
>Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 16:28:06 -0400
Fabulous letter - I couldn't agree more! After 7 years of sailing with
Jon, he still talks to other people using I instead of we!
see you guys soon. so are we going to sail next week then?
jd
----- Original Message -----
From: rkey@mit.edu
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 2:50 PM
To: brell84@hotmail.com; kiriw@prodigy.net; jessidimock@hotmail.com
Subject: Fwd: RE: More Sailing?
----- Forwarded message from "Adams, Josh"
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 09:59:00 -0400
From: "Adams, Josh"
Thought the group would enjoy this note that a few journos and I
received this morning from Bob Merrick. It reminds me of Kevin Hall's
famous comment, "Crews are people, too."
Dear Friends, Sailing Journalists, Crew Union members and Helmspersons,
On behalf of the International Crew Union I am asking you to consider
the
following assertion. Most of us who crew on sailboats are doing it
because
we enjoy the racing and not as a personal favor to our helmspersons. I
submit that we are not crewing FOR our skippers we are sailing WITH them
as an integral part of the team. (That is unless we are being paid BY
our
helmsperson in which case we won't squabble over words.)
Take this example from a recently published preview for the 2002
Tornado
worlds: "John Forbes, currently crewing for Darren Bundock." My
question
is, who was Darren Bundock before he teamed up with John Forbes?
If you agree with my proposal please forward it along to your fellow
journalists. If not don't expect any more good roll tacks. I warn you
our
underground network is vast and far-reaching.
Self Appointed International Crew Union Spokesperson: Bob Merrick
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