caleb paine

Following an upset in the rankings at the European Championship in March, 2016, it was then-unknown Caleb Paine, not 2008 silver medalist Zach Railey, who would be going to Rio in August. Paine, then 25 years old, came from behind to place 24th in the Finn, with Railey placing 29th. Going into the medal race at the 2016 Olympic Games, he was in fourth place with 74 points. Giles Scott of the UK was pretty much assured of the gold medal, but Paine knew he had a shot at the podium. He took the lead early in the fi nal race and never let up, rounding each of the four marks in fi rst place. His performance in that last race earned him a bronze medal, the fi rst US medal in sailing at the Olympics since 2008 (Jean-Paul Creignou and Jennifer French won silver at the 2012 Paralympics, as did Rick Doerr, Brad Kendell and Hugh Freund in 2016). Caleb grew up in San Diego, but last year, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and joined Richmond Yacht Club, where he lives aboard his Nauticat 33. We caught up with him there in April.

Latitude 38: Did the opening of the FAST USA Olympic training facility at Treasure Island Sailing Center have anything to do with you moving to the Bay Area? Caleb Paine: Yes it did. The main reason was that Bill Kreysler offered me a job after the Olympics. His company, Kreysler and Associates does massive fi berglass architecture. I actually did the façade on the San Francisco MOMA museum. So it was to work for him, and I wanted to continue sailing for the 2020

Games. I took time off and now I'm doing that, and helping wherever I can. 38: And what was your job with Kreysler?

CP: I was a fabricator, basically helping with programming robots. 38: Now that you're back racing and training for the Olympics, how much of your time is spent in that other occupation, and how much is spent in your training and sailing?

CP: 100% sailing. If you want to be the best in the world, you've got to give it everything you've got. 38: It's a full-time job and then some.

CP: Absolutely. Basically, I got back from Europe last week, and I've been in training at the gym to stay fi t, and going to start sailing here in the next week or two. So yeah, it's been full-time. 38: Here in the Bay Area, where do you keep your boat, and where do you sail?

CP: Just right out here. Richmond Yacht Club. I sail right out here in the Circle. It's an awesome place to sail, as we all know. I've always thought it's kind of under-utilized. With athletes, especially on the Olympic team, there's a variety of conditions you get. You want light air? Just go out in the morning. Almost every day in the summertime you're going to get 18 knots, and you get the fl uky stuff as well. People tend to focus on one general type of condition, when in reality, with the Olympic Games and all these events we sail, we get everything. You have to sail on the challenging stuff, on the breezy stuff. 38: Do you still have a home in San Diego as well?

CP: My parents have a home there, so if I ever wanted to move back there… but no, basically I'm living on a boat now. It's good. 38: And you have your boat here in the yacht club? CP: Yeah, good old F Dock. 38: What's the name of your boat? CP: The boat has a funny story. It's Lost and Found. A retired NYPD offi cer was cruising her down the coast, and he and his wife were going to travel to the Caribbean. She was off getting papers for the Panama Canal, and he was trying to meet her down there. When he was off the coast of Costa Rica, there was a storm. I think he got a little freaked out, something with the engine blew — he didn't know how to sail very well and called the Coast Guard in a panic, and the Coast Guard told him to leave. So, he jumps on a shipping freighter and abandons the boat. The boat then gets picked up by some Costa Rican fellas, and everything gets stripped out of it. They push it back into the ocean, where it fl oats for six months around the Pacifi c Ocean. It was then found about two miles off the coast of Honolulu, where the Harbor Patrol pulled it in and contacted the guy; the guy picked it up and then brought it to San Diego, where it sat for about six or seven years. I was fortunate enough to pick it up, and it's been a work in progress ever since. [Laughs] But it's a cool story. I named it the Lost and Found. 38: A true fi xer-upper.

CP: [Laughs] Oh yeah! In every sense of the word. But, it's got good bones, a Nauticat 33, so basically half an inch of fi berglass with no balsa core or anything, just solid fi berglass. It's built well. 38: So you had her in San Diego and you sailed her up the coast?

CP: Actually, we trucked it up. We weren't sure what the deal was with it, so we were fortunate enough to just put it on the truck and bring it up here. It's great for a liveaboard. Everyone's like, "It's not a race boat!" I can race fast whenever I want, but I want to be as comfortable as possible, and it defi nitely gets me that. 38: Especially when you're over six feet tall…

CP: Oh yeah. A pilothouse I can stand up in defi nitely adds to the practicality of it. 38: Going back to the beginning, how did you get involved with sailing and

"The fi rst time I was on a boat I was two weeks old."

Caleb Paine at Richmond Yacht Club. He also belongs to St. Francis, Mission Bay and Southwestern YCs (the latter two of which are in San Diego).

LATITUDE / CHIRS

Top: Caleb Paine racing in January's World Cup Series Miami. Bottom: Caleb (right) shows his bronze medal to the kids at Treasure Island Sailing Center — and lets them touch it.

competition?

CP: My dad was a big sailor. He claims the fi rst time I was on a boat I was two weeks old. I just grew into loving the sport of sailing and transitioned into Sabots when I was around 5 or 6 years old, and I took up racing up and down the California coast then, sailing little tiny boats. And then I transitioned to the Laser and did some national events. When I was 19, I did my fi rst international events in the Finn. 38: Did you sail in college?

CP: I did not, actually. I was one of the few who saw the path that was before me and realized that if I wanted to go off and win a medal I'd probably have to go full-time sailing, so that's what I did, and fortunately it worked out. Obviously I'd go back to school if I needed to, but for the time being, this is what I'm doing. 38: What made you choose the Finn? CP: Basically, size. In boats, specifi cally dinghy classes, your body is really going to put you in a category of what you

can sail. Being over 6 feet tall at 19 and weighing over 200 pounds, the Finn was really the only boat I could do. 38: Was Rio your fi rst Olympics? CP: It was. It was never a dull moment. 38: What was Rio like? CP: The fi rst time I was ever there was 2013. It is such a beautiful country. It was probably the most beautiful harbor I've ever sailed in for my entire life. San Francisco is gorgeous, but this was like sailing at Jurassic Park. You've got Sugarloaf, Christ the Redeemer — it's a very cool place. It defi nitely has its issues, like anywhere. Pollution is defi nitely a problem, but we see that here in the US as well. It was amazing sailing. In terms of the variety of conditions, I don't think there is anywhere that has quite the same variety. During the Olympics, for instance, we had the inside fl at water, 10 knots, shifty but consistent; and then outside we had 15-ft waves and 25- to 30-knot winds — the whole spectrum of sailing. The Finn is able to do that. 38: The media made it seem like the water was pretty disgusting. Was it really as bad as they made it sound? CP: The water wasn't great. It's kind of like San Francisco Bay; they were taking their samples really deep into the delta where there wasn't a lot of tidal separation. So yeah, the water wasn't as bad as they said. I'm fi ne now. The majority of the sailors survived; I only heard of one or two instances of people getting sick. You know, there are staph outbreaks

whenever it rains at San Diego. I think I had more staph infections there than I ever got in Brazil, which was zero. 38: What are your next regattas? CP: The next event this year is the Aarhus [Denmark], and that's the World Sailing combined world championships. This event qualifi es the country for the spots at the Olympic Games. There are only 10 available. That's in August. I have one event previous to that in Kiel [Germany, June 16-24]. 38: When are you going to be able to sail in the Tokyo venue for the fi rst time? CP: I'll actually be going there in September or October, I believe, so that will be the fi rst time. I'll spend plenty of time there for sure. 38: Who's your coach?

CP: A guy named Luther Carpenter. There are like three coaches that are considered to be the best in the world, and he's one of them. He's coached six different Olympic medalists and fi ve different Olympic classes. He's the real deal. 38: Where's he from?

CP: He's originally from Louisiana, but lives in Houston, Texas, now. 38: And he's coming out here to coach you?

CP: Yeah, he'll be here in May. 38: Looking beyond the 2020 Olympics: If they cut the Finn out of the program, what do you see your future being beyond 2020?

CP: So I actually wasn't going to sail the 2024 Olympics anyway. I've been fortunate to be a part of American Magic, so I'm looking forward to working with them. We'll see where that goes. Olympic sailing, it looks like there are a lot of things that are changing or could change. Who

"San Francisco is gorgeous, but this was like sailing at Jurassic Park."

The Finn podium in Miami following January's World Cup Series regatta. Left to right: Caleb Paine, USA, silver; Giles Scott, GBR, gold; Alican Kaynar, TUR, bronze.

JESUS RENEDO / SAILING ENERGY knows where life will take me, but for this point in time, I'm focusing on the Olympics. 38: The American Magic America's Cup team sounds very exciting. What are you doing with them? CB: Just doing a couple of training camps here and there. They're very supportive of my Olympic sailing, and as we're going forward our lives will be more intertwined. 38: That America's Cup is going to be in 2021.

CB: That's correct. 38: So that's after the Olympics.

CB: Yep. It works out. Good timing. I'm glad they planned it that way. 38: Is there anything else you want to share with our readers?

CB: Just that Latitude 38 has been an awesome magazine, and thank you for all the coverage that has happened in the past. I look forward to possibly working together again in the future.

About the need for the new FAST USA center on Treasure Island, Paine commented, "It's been a very East Coast kind of vibe with the Olympic sailing. Because US Sailing is based over there, people on the West Coast kind of felt like, you know, what the hell, man? We never get any of the notice. That's defi nitely changed, and Malcolm Page and a lot of the people who are part of the Olympic program of US Sailing have really been behind this in trying to get more communication between the two sides, and fortunately we're able to make that happen." (Malcolm Page won gold medals for Australia in the 470 in 2008 and 2012. He's now US Sailing's chief of Olympic sailing, and he's moving to the Bay Area to run the new training facility.) See www.teamusa.org/us-sailing/ athletes/Caleb-Paine to read more about Caleb Paine. We plan to bring you additional profi les of West Coast Olympic sailors in future issues.