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New
contributing writer T.A. Johnson put this report together of the Rolex
International Women's Keelboat Championship for y'all. Enjoy.
Annapolis,
Md - Six days of racing on the Chesapeake Bay and
the top women sailors in the world gave spectators of the Rolex International
Women's Keelboat Championship a chance not only to witness the power of
women sailors but to admire their skills in extreme weather conditions
that would test the strength of any sailing man.
With
nearly 250 top women sailors from around the world, the spectator fleet
was dominated by a huge flotilla of support boats, husbands, boyfriends,
brothers, and fathers who took on the shore jobs to enable the women sailors
to duke it out on the course. While Hurricane Isable delayed the start
of the race a day, the weather never really did settle down on the Chesapeake.
During Day four of the regatta, wind conditions were extreme with recorded
gusts of up to 40 knots. At least eight boats broached, and a Colorado
team lost three women overboard, and one team member suffered three bruised
ribs.
"The
conditions were sail-able but a series of bad things happened," said
Terry Schertz, skipper of Gorilla Girls from Colorado. "We had three
people washed overboard. The moral of the story is have your knife at
hand. I have never been scared before when sailing and I was scared."
Two
of the woman were thrown off the bow as they struggled to release a fouled
spinnaker, and when the boat broached they not only went in the water
but they were forced deep under the water and hadn't taken a good, deep
breath. One crew member swam with her rigging knife open in order to free
herself from a tangled line.
Mary
Grealy of Annapolis also went overboard on her boat. "We were coming
down off a wave and I was launched forward where I went head first and
swallowed a lot more water than I wanted to," said Mary Grealy. "This
was extreme sailing and we just had to sail conservatively."
Winning
the overall regatta was Sally Barkow of Nashotah, WI who is on the US
Sailing Team and will make her bid for the Olympics in Greece 2004 aboard
a Yingling. Barkow is the youngest woman to win the Rolex keelboat championship
as she and her teammates are still not able to legally drink and until
this week had never seen a Rolex watch, much less own won one. This rising
star in women's sailing finished the regatta 20 points ahead of the competition
with 44 points overall beating Olympic contender Betsy Ellison by a wide
margin.
"My
team is amazing and we are driven to do the best race we can every race,"
Barkow said.
Placing
second was Paula Lewin and her team from Bermuda with 58 points and local
Annapolis Team Atkins Carol Cronin with 60 points.
Olympic
contender and five-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Betsy Allison placed
eighth after being black-flagged on Thursday.
The
final results of the top ten sailing teams was
- Sally
Barkow of Wisconsin
- Paula
Lewin of Bermuda
- Carol
Cronin of Jamestown, R.I.
- Mary
Bridgen of San Diego, Ca
- Karleen
Dixon, Nancy Haberland, Annapolis, MD
- Karlee
Dixon, Auckland, NZ
- Dominique
Provoyeur, South Africa
- Betsy
Alison, Newport, R.I.
- Lorie
Stout, Annapolis
- Phebe
King, Annapolis
-
T.A. Johnson
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