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Hal Haenel


FULL NAME:   Hal H. Haenel
NAME FOR PUBLICATION:   Hal Haenel
CLASS:    Star
POSITION:   Crew     (Skipper: Mark Reynolds)
US SAILING TEAM:  1988-1992, 1994-1996
YACHT CLUB:  California Yacht Club
HIGH SCHOOL:  Lutheran High School South, St. Louis, MO, graduated 1976.
COLLEGE:  Columbia College, Chicago, IL, graduated 1981, BA Film.
BIRTHDATE:  10/18/58         MARITAL STATUS: Single
BIRTHPLACE:  St. Louis, MO       HOMETOWN:  St. Louis, MO
HEIGHT:  6'3"  WEIGHT:  245             SAILING SINCE AGE:  8
OCCUPATION: Vice President/General Manager, Hollywood Center Studios.

SAILING RESUME:
1996

1995

1994

SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENTS:

	San Diego's Mark Reynolds has been called the "Star of the Star
Class".  A protege of Dennis Conner, the sailmaker/owner of the Sobstad Sail Loft in San Diego
started his first Olympic campaign in the Flying Dutchman class.  Sailing with Miami's
Augie Diaz, the duo were sidelined when the US boycotted the 1980 Games.  Since 1986
Mark has sailed with Hal Haenel, a 235-pound former soccer player and Los Angeles movie
studio operations director, who was looking for a boat to crew on. Their 1988 bid for Olympic
Gold was undone in the final race when a control line failed and their mast came
tumbling down in the incredible winds and waves off Pusan.  They settled for the Silver
Medal.

	Aware that no American Star sailors had ever repeated as Oympic
representatives, the duo kept their focus for the 1992 Olympic Regatta where
they never finished worse than third in any race and enjoyed the luxury of being able
to sit out the final heat.  They returned home from Barcelona with Gold Medals. The challenge
of new course configurations in Savannah, and the possibility a simplified scoring
system will be employed, has fueled their desire to compete in a third Olympic Regatta.

	Formerly just a summer project, an Olympic campaign now closely resembles
a full-time business.  In the last year and a half leading to Barcelona, Reynolds and
Haenel went through $100,000.  Most expensive was travel to important foreign regattas.  In
1993 "Hollywood" Hal had to miss much of the competition due to knee surgery.  Back on track
again, the duo has performed well enough to be ranked #2 on the 1995 US Sailing Team.

	The duo maintain full-time careers unlike many sailors who have put
jobs and school on hold during their Olympic campaigns.  Hal estimates he will take between
15-20 weeks of the year away from his wife and children who are ages 9, 7 and 4.

	Mark and Hal won the 1995 Star World Championships in Laredo, Spain,
held September 10-16, with finishes of (20)-1-3-8-3-2 in the six race series
(one throwout) which was contested by 76 entrants.  In the final day of racing, half of
the fleet either did not finish or did not compete due to extreme conditions of 25-35 knots,
gusts to 40, and huge seas. Reynolds has competed in the Star Worlds 14 times during
which he has consistently finished in the top ten, but never first.  Reynolds
and Haenel add the World Championship title to their collection of Olympic medals (Gold
'92, Silver '88).  Mark's father, Jim, together with Dennis Conner, won the 1971
Star World Championship.

	With their win of the '96 Olympic Yachting Trials, Reynolds and Haenel
make U.S. Olympic Yachting history as three-time consecutive Olympic representatives
in the same event.
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