| ANNAPOLIS, MD. USA-(1-10-2003) After six races in the Rolex
International Women's Keelboat Championship, Betsy Alison (Newport, R.I.)
still leads with Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.) in second. The two now have a
five-point spread between their overall standings whereas yesterday they
were tied in scoring with Alison taking the lead due to tie-breaker rules.
Annapolis skipper Lorie Stout won today's single light-air race -- her
second victory in six races so far -- to move her team up to fifth place.
Alison and Barkow finished 4-9, respectively. Mary Brigden (San Diego,
Calif.) finished today's race in second and improved her overall position
from sixth to third.
Stout did not believe local knowledge helped her, since she regularly sails
in the Severn River just off Annapolis and the fleet sailed in the middle of
Chesapeake Bay five miles south of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
`Sailing out there is a lot different than sailing next to the Severn
Sailing Association,` said Stout, who nailed the start but fouled someone
shortly afterward. `It was a little tap, and we did our circles and got
started again. We got rocking then.`
Fighting an ebb tide and lightening breeze, Stout managed to round the top
mark in eighth position. `We went up the middle when the rest of the fleet
was split to either side, and the middle worked for us. There was a lot of
shifting of weight and shifting gears. We did a great job of that.`
By the second windward mark on the twice-around windward-leeward course,
Stout was leading the fleet, with Brigden and Alison following.
`Downwind we only had to jibe and led the whole way to the finish. There was
excellent pressure for us. There was a lot of easing and trimming the whole
time to the finish.` Trimming for Stout is Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year
Susan Taylor of Annapolis.
Another local team skippered by Nancy Haberland nipped at Alison's heels and
caught her on the final downwind run to the finish. Haberland's third place
would have served her well except that she had started prematurely and
incurred a 20% penalty after restarting. The mathematics of it all added 16
points to her score instead of three, and she sits in seventh overall,
losing two positions on the scoreboard since yesterday. Haberland, a sailing
coach for the U.S. Naval Academy and a 2004 Olympic hopeful in the Yngling
class, is sailing against other Olympic hopefuls, including both Alison and
Barkow, this week out on Chesapeake Bay.
A total of 17 Maryland teams, comprised of four women each, are competing
among the 66 international teams in town. The regatta, the world's largest
of its kind for women, has been held every other year since 1985, and this
is the second time it has been held in Annapolis, after having been moved
here from Newport, R.I.
A second race was started but abandoned when it was clear that the fleet
would not finish the race within the two-hour time limit. The Race Committee
will attempt to re-sail the race tomorrow along with two other scheduled
races.
`It was definitely the hardest day we have sailed out there,` said Kylie
Jameson, skipper aboard one of three New Zealand entries. `This morning's
race had the first few boats crossing the finish line whilst most of the
fleet were still more than a leg behind. The second race saw the first boats
go around the first leeward mark in reasonable wind and then the breeze just
turned off. The Race Committee did the right thing by not keeping us out
there.`
The five-day, 10-race series will conclude on Friday and be followed by a
gala Rolex Awards Ceremony at Annapolis Yacht Club, host to the regatta,
where the winning team will receive a Rolex timepiece.
For more information: www.race.annapolisyc.org/rolexkeelboats or
www.ussailing.org.
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