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Name: Alexander “Zander” Kirkland

Age: 30

Hometown: Hamilton, Bermuda

Where you live now: San Francisco, CA

High School Experience:

Student - Tabor Academy (Marion MA), Class of 2002
Coach – Newport Harbor High School 2008-2009, (NHHS was 2009 Mallory and Baker Champions)

Zander Kirkland was a top high school sailor at Tabor Academy from 1998-2002. Following high school, he sailed at Tufts University (Medford, MA). Following Tufts, Zander was hired as the head coach of Newport Harbor High School’s 2009 National Championship Team.

Zander left NHHS in 2010 to pursue his Olympic sailing dream with his brother Jesse (another Tabor sailing team graduate), and together they would represent Bermuda in the 49er Class in the 2012 London Olympics.

1. Describe your high school sailing experience while you were at Tabor Academy (Marion MA):

I had a blast sailing in a very competitive NESSA district. I always looked forward to those big "matches" with St. George's and Milton. Dave Siegal and I skippered A/B Division at Tabor and Tufts together, which was cool. We also got the same results our senior year of college and high school at nationals (2nd at Team Racing, 4th Dinghies). For Tabor we won NE Dinghies and Team Racing our senior year (2002...only 11 years ago!).

2. You coached at Newport Harbor High School for two years, and helped lead that team to wins in both Baker and Mallory HS championships in 2009:

2009 was a special year! We had Wade Hatton, Chris Barnard and Chris Segerblom as our 3 skippers. We also had rock star crews: Kayla McComb, Nicole Grice and Francesca Cappelini, Jeff Aschieris, Ryan Davidson and Brooks Clark...lots of characters! Chris and Chris have gone on to do great in college sailing as skippers. Kayla as well, as an all-star in crewing and womens' skippering. Best moment was winning Team Race Nationals at Stanford. Felt good beating Point Loma!! Also it was awesome to win HS Dinghy Nationals by such a huge margin (60 points I think). We had a distinct boatspeed advantage and sailed smart. We were unstoppable that weekend in St. Pete! IF I had to name one character on that team, easily Wade Hatton!

3. For the 2012 Olympiad, you and your brother Jesse decided to jump into the high performance 49er class:

If you look at our size, it was the only boat we could sail together and not have to change our body type too drastically. Stars or 470s were not in our cards...

4. Describe some of the highlights and lowlights of your 49er campaign:

Highlight: winning races at the 2012 World Championship in Croatia and getting top 10 overall!

Lowlight: getting lapped at the 2010 World Championship in the Bahamas in many races and finishing 2nd-to-last overall.

5. When and where were you when you realized you had qualified to sail in the Olympics?

We were in Croatia at the final Olympic qualifier, which was the 2012 World Championships. It was half-way through the event and we had qualified for gold fleet, which locked us in for London later that summer! We were with our parents and it was a special day. Years of hard work and thousands of dollars later we had done it!

6. You were selected to carry the flag for Bermuda’s Team in the London Olympics’ Opening Ceremonies. How were you selected for this honor?

Yes, it was one of the greatest honors I have ever had bestowed on me. Actually the Bermuda Olympic Association picked my younger brother Jesse to carry the flag because he was the skipper, but my brother passed it off to me. It was a selfless gesture from my brother and I will never forget that he thought of me in a moment that could easily have been his.

Really it was also exciting that the sailing team got the nod, because we also had an Olympic team with swimmers, triathletes, and track stars. I think we got it because we had just done very well at the world championship and went in as the best shot for a good showing.

7. Also what was it like walking into a stadium in front of thousands of fans? And were you the only team with guys wearing shorts?

It was pretty surreal. I remember the chanting of the crowd, the roar they gave for "BERMUDA" and just floating around that track. Simply magical. Not everyday you come out of a tunnel to 80,000 people...

True to Bermudians good sense of style, we had our signature shorts on, but we were not the most exotic uniforms. I seem to remember some African countries wearing some amazing warrior outfits!

8. What are your favorite sailing memories from the Olympics?

Getting a 6th place in one of the windiest races in the series. We had a good start in the top pack and hung with all the players for the whole 4 laps! We made mistakes in other races, but we sailed a few races that we were very proud of. We also got a 2nd in one race, losing only to Nathan & Ian which was cool. The country spinnakers looked great and the racing was extremely close (often the entire fleet was bow to stern). Think: a high school sized scale, but in a skiff! We were doing 4 lap races, where a beat would take 6 minutes. So kids, get good at small course racing, it's the future of performance sailing!

9. What are you doing now in sailing? Are you thinking about another campaign?

I am done with Olympic sailing, trying to develop a career in the tech center of San Francisco. I still do some team racing here and there. 505s, 18s and 49erFX sailing wouldn't be out of my cards going forward if I could get a ride here or there. The next serious racing I want to do is Ocean Racing, but for now not really a focus.