November 13/98

Sailing towards the

O. the years, the athletics’ spotlight
at Capilano College has generally
focused on soccer. It would be difficult not
to, what with the women’s team winning
the British Columbia Colleges’ Athletics
Association (BCCAA) championship four
years in a row (including 1998). The
College even had a Canadian Olympic
team midfielder, Mike Dodd, playing for
the Blues and his country synchronously
back in 1990. But few people know that
the College has another rising Olympic
star in its midst. One whose chosen sport
is a long way from the trampled and
muddy grass of the soccer field.

Twenty-year-old university transfer
student, Rob Cullen, prefers the swelling
seas to solid ground. You could say sailing
is in his blood.

“My parents met in Burmuda at the
World 505 sailing championships in 1975,”
he explains. “My dad was there for a
regatta and he met my mom on the beach.
He sent her a ticket for Christmas and she
flew up here and never left.”

In 1976, the newlyweds settled in West
Vancouver where they started raising a
family of sailors. At age two, Rob was
sailing with mom and dad and by age
eight, he started sailing solo. When he
turned 12, the young enthusiast began his
racing career at the Royal Vancouver Yacht
Club. He has three sisters and all of them
have the sailing bug.

“My older sister Ginny and I are both
doing Olympic 2000 campaigns, trying to
raise enough funds to get us there,’ Rob
says. “Sailing is a really expensive sport.
Boats need to be replaced annually. You
need about six sails a year and they run
anywhere from $300 to $800. Then there
are travelling costs, sailing clothes, entry
fees. It all adds up.”

Rob owns a 12-foot Laser, which is an
Olympic class dingy that costs about
$7,000. His accomplishments are pretty
impressive: a first place finish in the
Canadian under 23 regatta at the RVYC
last July, a silver medal in the 1997 Canada
Summer Games in Brandon, Manitoba,
and a second place finish in the Canadian
Youth Championships in 1996. In 1997,
he was the North American champion in
the Martin 242 class, which is a 24-foot

Keel boat.

Because of his
obvious talent, Rob
was recently selected
to spend some
time last August at a
training camp in
Kingston, Ontario
with world champion
Robert Scheidt. “The
camp taught me that
time in the boat was
the most important
aspect of an Olympic
campaign,” Rob says.
“My school timetable

was specifically set
up for me to be able to
sail at several regattas over the past year.

“Capilano College is one of the best
places for me to be right now,” he adds,
“because you know your teachers more
personally and they understand when you
have to miss classes to attend events,
especially when you’re representing the
College.”

Rob’s attitude towards school has
changed somewhat in the past few years.
“I was the worst student in high school,”
says the Sentinel grad. “Now I get As and
Bs.” He eventually plans to go to UBC to
take either the MBA or Engineering
program.

His obvious sense of determination was
never more apparent than when, right
before winning the Summer Games silver
medal in ’97, he fractured a vertebrae and
injured three discs in his back. “I had to
lie down between competitions, I was in
such pain,” he says. “I entered into a year
and a half of physio and they told me I’d
never sail again. I sold my boat and bought
a mountain bike to try and keep in shape.

“In August 797, my back hurt so much
I couldn’t get into a boat, even if I wanted
to. But after a while my physiotherapist
said, ‘try sailing again.’ So in March ’98 I
started racing again. I’ve clawed my way
back up to the national level and won the
first regatta I entered. That was the
Canadian under 23 championships held
last July in Vancouver.”

Rob then represented Capilano College
in October ’98 at the Canadian University

Champion sailor Rob Cullen looks to an Olympic future.

championships in Kingston, Ontario. “I
had an off weekend,” he says, describing
his 10th place finish. “I felt I could have
done a lot better, but it’s all part of the
learning process.”

Right now, Rob’s big goal is the
Olympics, but he says there are a million
goals in between. “To sail for a year and
do all the regattas I need to do to be able
to go to the Olympics will cost me about
$25,000. I’ve been living off the bank of
M & D (mom and dad), but I want to pay
them back what I borrow. I need financial
support to get to the Olympics and am
currently trying to raise enough money
to get me there.

In January, Rob would like to go to
Florida and sail in the Miami Olympic
Classes Regatta. “If you win any major
regatta (called Grand Prix regattas),” he
says, “you win a spot in the world’s.
Everyone from around the world goes to
the major regattas and you get experience
in a world-class event. You also get a good
look at the Olympic competition.”

If you’re interested in helping this
future Canadian Olympic athlete out, he
can be reached by phone at 921-9872, or
on the Web at sailorRob@hotmail.com.
Financial contributions can be made
through a tax receipt program set up by
the Canadian Yachting Association
(CYA). A sponsorship package is also
available.

Submitted by Shelley Kean

@nformer