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| Francois Richard |
Although he won the Soling Worlds in 1978,
crewing for his older brother Gaston, and then nearly won again the
next year after switching positions, Vince Brun suffered a crushing
disappointment at the 1980 Olympics in Russia, finishing well off the
pace. But maybe it made Brun (b. 1947) and a sailmaker for North Sails
in San Diego, stronger in the long term. "I was never the most
talented," he says. "My strength is persistence. When other guys
might've been thinking about other things, I had just one thing on my
mind. I wanted to do a little better."
It didn't take long
for Brun to move back to the top, winning the Soling Worlds in 1981 and
1983. Having moved from Brazil to the United States, he also began
racing Stars in San Diego's powerful local fleet and by 1986 he was
world champion of that class. Success followed success, and Brun began
to regularly win events like the Star North Americans, Europeans, and
Bacardi Cup. At age 49, when other competitors might be slowing down,
he went on a tear, winning the J/24 Worlds in 1996 (crewing for Chris
Larson) and in 1997 (as skipper), then the Melges 24 Worlds in 1998 and
1999, and the Etchells Worlds in 2000.
Each boat has had
different lessons for Brun. "The Laser teaches you how to move your
body," he says of the boat he sailed the most after moving to the
United States. "The J/24 teaches you about crewwork, and the Melges 24
teaches you about proper angles with the asymmetric spinnaker." But
when Brun talks about the Star, which he raced to a fourth place in the
2004 U.S. Olympic Trials, he sounds almost reverential: "The Star rig
gives you full control in setting up the sails and the mast. Comparing
the sail area to the boat itself, the Star is probably the biggest boat
in the world. It makes the boat really unstable—you're overpowered all
the time."
Brun says the Star has helped him see exactly what to do on bigger boats. He trimmed the main on
Stars & Stripes in the last Cup campaign and in 2004 is campaigning aboard
Crocodile Rock
for the Farr 40 Worlds in San Francisco. Does he mind giving up the
helm? "I love crewing," he says. "It's made me a better skipper."
