Olympic Champ Begins Switch from Moguls to Waves:
Moseley, a lifelong sailor, joins his brothers in yacht racing venture
By Sharael Feist
March 20, 2003
Marin residents will soon get the chance to see gold medal moguls skier Jonny Moseley in action, right in their own back yard.
No, there is no snow in the local forecast. Rather than sailing through the air on his skis, Moseley will be sailing across the fickle waters of the San Francisco Bay.
Having started sailing in Tiburon at a young age, Moseley is no stranger to the conditions of the bay, which is where he’ll re-enter the world of competitive sailing.
While he’ll continue his professional freestyle skiing career, Moseley will also squeeze in time to focus on sailing again.
“At this time, I have no aspirations of becoming a professional sailor,” Moseley said. “Sailing is strictly a hobby for me right now.”
Moseley will be joined on the water by his two older brothers, Rick and Jeff, to form Team Moseley. The two additional team members needed have not been established on a permanent basis yet. The Moseley brothers own a Melges 24 racing yacht and will compete in regattas held on the bay this year.
All three of the Moseley brothers have a knack for competitive sports, having been involved in both competitive skiing and sailing. The trio had taken a 12-year break from racing yachts together until last year. Now that they are together again, their goal is to fare well in the AUDI Melges 24 World Championship regatta, which will be sponsored by the St. Francis Yacht Club in October.
“I’ve taken years off from sailing,” Moseley said. “It’ll take me years to get good again.”
When Moseley was young and realized he had to make choice between professional skiing or sailing, it was his big brother Rick who encouraged him to choose skiing. The reasoning was that sailing was a skill that could be picked up again at a later age.
“Sailing is the type of thing I can do when I’m gray,” Moseley said. “You get better as you get older.”
Moseley, 27, has been skiing on a national level for nearly a dozen years, a lifetime for most athletes. He has spent the past decade traveling to various snow-laden locations, and now looks forward to thawing out and again adding sailing to his sports repertoire.
“It’ll be a different change from always being in the snow,” he said. “I enjoy sailing because it offers so many different challenges–it’s very cerebral. And I can do it here, at home, in the Bay Area.”
Team Moseley can be seen in action competing in the Elite Keel Regatta on May 17-18, which is sponsored by the San Francisco Yacht Club in Belvedere Cove (Tiburon) and the Memorial Day Weekend Regatta on May 24-25, sponsored by the St. Francis Yacht Club of San Francisco.