Nothing Leisurely About This Sail

Argyle Campbell has been an avid sailor for 45 of his 52 years, but he’d rather you didn’t ask him out for a Sunday pleasure cruise.

“I never have cared for just plain sailing,� said Campbell, a businessman from Newport Beach. “It’s the competition that’s the fun part of it for me.�

By that measure, Campbell had a blast last week when he went head-to-head in San Diego with some of the top sailors in the United States, and came away with a national championship.

Campbell won the title in a Melges 24, a class of small boats that draws an exceedingly strong competitive fleet. The Melges 24 is basically a dingy with a keel, which helps tone down its high-performance characteristics and makes it less physically demanding to sail.

“It’s more or less a dingy with training wheels,� said Dave Ullman, a Newport Beach sailmaker who finished fifth in the nationals. “It’s perfect for all of us older guys who hopefully haven’t lost our edge too much.�

Ullman, a three-time world champion in the 470 class, is representative of the world-class performers sailing the Melges class. Vince Brun, who finished seventh last week, won the Melges world title two years ago and is the reigning world champion in Etchells. Two-time U.S. Olympian Charlie Ogletree of Newport Beach finished fourth.

Campbell, who learned to sail on Newport Harbor at age 7 and was a three-time All-American at USC, bought his Melges, named Rock ‘n’ Roll, in 1997. He and his three-man crew--Robert Kinney, Scott Barnard and Jack Franco, also Newport Beach businessmen--have been competitive in the class but had no major victories until Saturday.

“We seem to have got ourselves in third or fourth place in most of the events we enter,� Campbell said. “It has been difficult to get around the top people.�

Rock ‘n’ Roll was third going into the final two races Saturday and dropped to fourth after the penultimate race off Coronado. Wind conditions were very light for the final two-lap race, and Campbell and Co. gambled by heading offshore while the rest of the six boats in contention went toward the beach, where the wind had been stronger.

“It was very difficult sailing,� said Newport Beach’s Bruce Ayres, who finished 10th. “The wind was shifting 15 to 20 degrees at a time.�

Campbell and his crew found some nice wind and finished fourth in the race. That easily secured the overall victory because their closest competitors couldn’t do better than 10th.

“He was the only one of the top six boats to do it right,� Ullman said.

ANOTHER QUEST

Newport Beach’s Peter Wells, who narrowly missed making the 2000 U.S. Olympic team in Mistral sailboard class, has started preparations for another bid in 2004. Last week, Wells won the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club’s 41st Olympic Classes Regatta in Long Beach, winning the first nine races to assure himself of the victory, then sitting out the 10th.

Wells, a former UC Irvine All-American sailor, is ranked No. 1 on the U.S. national team, which will help with fund-raising efforts for his Olympic campaign. He figures he raised $60,000 and spent $40,000 of his own money in the four years before 2000.

“I have a little bit of money left over from the last campaign,� said Wells, 26. “Basically, of every dollar that I earn, every penny that I have extra goes to my windsurfing.�

MASTERS TRACK

Garden Grove’s Angel Roman won the mile Saturday at the U.S. Track and Field National Masters Indoor Championships in Boston.

Roman, 39, was in fourth place in the 35-39 division with one 200-meter lap remaining, and didn’t pass the final two men in front of him until the last five meters. He won in 4 minutes 24.43 seconds, only .17 seconds ahead of the runner in third.

Sunday, Roman, who competes for Team Runners High, finished second in the 800 meters in 2:00.48.

Other top Orange County performers at the meet: Trabuco Canyon’s Elaine Iba (first in 40-44 long jump, 16 feet 6 1/2 inches; first in triple jump, 31-0; first in indoor pentathlon, 2,834 points, and second in 60 meters, 8.51 seconds), Irvine’s Gregory Charles (third place in 40-44 pole vault, 13-3 1/2), Corona del Mar’s Doug Sparks (sixth in 45-49 pole vault, 11-9 3/4), Huntington Beach’s Sumi Onodera-Leonard (second in 70-74 200 meters, 40.67, and first in 70-74 800 meters, 3:38.10) and Corona del Mar’s Kay Sparks (second in 50-54 high jump, 3-7 1/4, and second in 50-54 pole vault, 5-11 1/2).

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS

RUNNING

Sunday

* Carlsbad 5000, which bills itself at the world’s fastest invitational 5K road race, also offers a series of “People’s Races.� The event is expected to attract 15,000 runners and 50,000 spectators. Details: (858) 450-6510 or https://www.eliteracing.com

April 7

* Seal Beach 10K and 5K starts and finishes at the Seal Beach Pier. Details: (562) 431-2527

April 21

* Earth Week Run in Placentia has 8K and 5K courses and kids 1K fun run. Details: (714) 993-8232

April 29

* Silky Sullivan’s Run for the Roses 5K starts and finishes in Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley. Details: (714) 847-8171

* Around the Bay for World No Tobacco Day 5K, 10-mile runs. Courses are around Upper Newport Bay. Start/finish at Newport Dunes. Details: (714) 541-1444