Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 20, 1994 TAG: 9403220081
SECTION: BOAT SHOW PAGE: BS-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: MIAMI LENGTH: Medium
Miamian Peter Dreyfuss, 23, eagerly offered Thomas Johanson his boat, then found another one and tagged along for the education. The pair sailed together for two days and Dreyfuss delighted with his fortune.
"Who is the U.S. national champion?" Johanson asked after the two became buddies.
"The U.S. champion?" responded Dreyfuss. "That's me."
Dreyfuss proceeded to out-sail Johanson and 78 other sailors in the Laser class to win the regatta, the most impressive turnout ever of Laser sailing talent. He all but clinched a berth on the U.S. national sailing team with his fifth victory in eight major regattas during the past 10 months.
"In any sport you get upsets," said Dreyfuss, who will earn his degree in mechanical engineering from Florida International University in April. "I'm still a nobody in international sailing."
Not for long. In addition to beating Johanson and qualifying for the next world championships this summer in Japan, Dreyfuss has topped the European champion, last year's No. 1 U.S. sailor and the rest of this country's long list of Laser sailors targeted for stardom by the United States Sailing Association. If he gets a sponsor and raises enough money to mount a serious Olympic campaign, Dreyfuss could be the next Olympic medalist to follow Miamians Kevin Burnham and Morgan Reeser, who won silver medals at Barcelona in the 470 class.
"South Florida needs a hero to get behind for 1996," said Miami sailing advocate James "Ding" Schoonmaker, an Olympic alternate in 1952 and '64. "And this young man seems like the one. He's dedicated, sincere, polite, friendly and extremely talented."
Ron Rosenberg, the U.S. Olympic Laser coach from Bangor, Maine: "A year ago we were getting trounced at the worlds. But because of athletes like Peter, the Laser class has so much young, fresh, deep talent."
The Lasers, which require only one sailor, were introduced in 1970. They are small (13 feet, 9 inches) and light (the hull is 130 pounds) and do better with large, muscular athletes because the vessels are unstable in heavy wind. The sailors sit in a cockpit and hook their feet under straps, extending their bodies over the water - called hiking - for leverage.
At 5-11 and 170 pounds, Dreyfuss is not considered large. But he has thick, powerful quadriceps and stomach muscles that ripple from constant hiking and high-repetition weight lifting.
"Tactically, Peter has always been very smart. But he's made a huge improvement in physical strength," Rosenberg said. "He's a light-air specialist who has gotten very good in heavy air."
Atlanta's Olympics (the sailing portion is in Savannah) will be the first to include Lasers, which replaced the flying Dutchman class. Lasers are one of only two Olympic classes of boats (Mistral sailboards are the other) that are referred to as "strictone-design." That means every Laser is identical and manufactured by one company. In other classes, even the one-design 470s, for example, sailors can choose from different companies and often spend much of their time trying to get a better hull or sail.
Dreyfuss: "I like the idea that there's no one else who can top my boat. If you win in Laser, it's strictly because you've done the best sailing."
He also chooses to sail solo, a preference he developed when he began racing wooden prams with the Miami Yacht Club as a youngster. Today he represents the U.S. Sailing Center in Coconut Grove.
"You have to be in great physical shape to hold down a Laser in the wind, and be able to maneuver and at the same time look around to see where you need to go to capitalize on wind shifts and currents and other boats," Dreyfuss said. "In a double-handed boat the sailors split up; one guy looks around and the other guy steers the boat.
"The true test is one-on-one."
With a college schedule that this year has included the design and construction of a human-powered submarine, Dreyfuss' string of victories has been even more impressive.
"Years ago, I would have told anyone who suggested that Peter would be doing an Olympic campaign that they were seasick," said Jacques Dreyfuss, Peter's father. "He's unassuming and loves to sail. But he was just a normal little boy, not an outstanding athlete. What impresses me most is how he excels at his schoolwork."
Jacques Dreyfuss introduced his children to sailing when Peter was 7 and his brother, Jack, was 9. But it was all recreational, and dad never imagined they'd take it to such extremes. Jack Dreyfuss, 25, also is a top-level competitor and dreams of competing in Savannah, but concedes that Peter has the edge.
"All of a sudden something just clicked for Peter this year," Jack said. "He's doing everything right, and he's doing it faster than the other sailors."
by CNB