Optiworlds: Coach of three nations at work

Argentinian sailing coach Santiago Galan has no qualms about his dual role at the Optiworlds this year where he is responsible for coaching both the US Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic squads.

From Buenos Aires originally, he spent three years with the Ecuador team before moving to the US Virgin Islands in 2009.



From his new home in the Caribbean, he coaches the British Virgin Islands and the US Virgin Islands sailors, and is also in charge of the lone Dominican Republic sailor Justina Pacheco at the Napier Optiworlds.

The gathering of a larger training fleet from different islands in the Caribbean helped their learning, he said.

"That is the best thing. If the kids have a good level, then the level of all of them is going up."

With the British Virgin Islands only 20 minutes away, the logistics are not difficult.

"The kids come over sometimes in holidays and the weekends and we make a mixed team. It's not really hard because it's not really a big fleet. The fleet is no more than 12 sailors.

"All the kids have different techniques and different styles, so we try to [get] every single kid learning from each other."

He was torn from his fellow South American students, most of whom are competing in Napier as well, when a friend invited him to coach in the Virgin Islands.

"That is a mixed sensation, I know maybe eight kids here. We are in the same coach boat, it is hard.

"All the kids are friends, for me all the kids are my sons."

Christopher Murphy, 13, from the US Virgin Islands squad, thought the gathering of the Caribbean sailors Mr Galan taught was beneficial to his development.

"It just makes the training a lot harder and better for me," he said. "It's just better to train with more people."