Ed Baird
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St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.
 Baird with the America's Cup in Geneva, Switzerland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Phillip Edward Baird | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | May 17, 1958 St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sailing career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| College team | University of South Florida | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Phillip Edward "Ed" Baird (born May 17, 1958) is an American sailor. He was a coach of the 1995 America's Cup-winning Team New Zealand and a helmsman for the 2007 America's Cup-winning Alinghi syndicate.[1]
Growing up in Florida, Baird raced in the Optimist class at junior level, before moving onto other dinghies. He won the World Laser Championships in 1980 and the World J/24 Championships in 1983.[1][2]
Baird joined Team New Zealand as a coach for the 1995 America's Cup, guiding the syndicate to New Zealand's first ever Cup win. In the same year, he won the World Match Racing Championships,[2] and was named the US's Yachtsman of the Year.[3]
In 1999, he skippered Young America in the Louis Vuitton series to determine the challenger for the following year's America's Cup, but the syndicate's challenge faltered when one of its two yachts nearly sank in a race against a Japanese team.[4]
