Liz Baylis

Some Ideas From the Save The Bay web site: www.savesfbay.org
Reduce Bay Pollution!

Up to 70 percent of Bay pollution comes from toxic runoff from our homes, cars, and neighborhoods. Fortunately, because we create this pollution, we have the power to reduce it.
Everyone can make simple lifestyle changes to improve the health of our Bay:

• Switch to reusable shopping bags
• Tune your car regularly to prevent oil leaks
• Use a professional car wash - they send dirty water to the wastewater treatment plant
• Dispose of e-waste and mercury-containing items at the Household Hazardous Waste facility
• Responsibly dispose of old medicine
• Don’t litter and pick up trash in your neighborhood

And don’t forget that Save The Bay offers numerous volunteer events where you can help clean up and restore the Bay.

As we return home and bask in the glow of the silver medal from the World Championships, we reflect on a very successful 2007-08 campaign and turn our sights on the upcoming season. With the ’08 Worlds coming so early in the year we treated it as the end of the ’07 season and a successful end it was!

We had a great team this year – In all we had a team of 15 sailors which allowed us to mix and match talent and strengths for the wide variety of events and boats. Here was our crew line up for the different events:

Rolex Women’s Match – Liz Baylis, Lee Icyda, Karina Shelton, Suzy Leech

IX International Match Race Criterium - Liz Baylis, Lee Icyda, Melinda Erkelens, Karina Shelton, Suzy Leech

Santa Maria Cup - Liz Baylis, Lee Icyda, Karina Shelton, Suzy Leech

Mayor’s Cup – Liz Baylis, Pease Glaser, Ruth Paulling, Shala Lawrence, Denise George, Sue Service, Karyn Jones

Lysekil Women’s Match - Liz Baylis, Lee Icyda, Chafee Emory, Karina Shelton, Aimee Daniel, Suzy Leech

US Women’s Match Racing Championship – Liz Baylis, Cory Sertl, Suzy Leech

Rolex Osprey Cup - Liz Baylis, Lee Icyda, Karina Shelton, Suzy Leech

New Zealand Women’s Match Racing Championships – Liz Baylis, Hannah Morris, Karina Shelton, Taylor Holland

Marinassess Women’s Match Racing Regatta - Liz Baylis, Lee Icyda, Karina Shelton, Suzy Leech

BSPORT ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championships - Liz Baylis, Lee Icyda, Karina Shelton, Suzy Leech

We received coaching help throughout the season from a number of the sport’s top coaches: Jeff Madrigali (USA), Mark Ivey (USA), Michael Dunstan (AUS), Dave Perry (USA), Steve Flam (USA), Traks Gordon (AUS), and Harold Bennett (NZL).

We won three of these events and culminated with a silver medal at the Worlds, so all in all a very successful year. Are we resting on our laurels? – HECK NO! We’re hungrier than ever to compete at the top level, defend the titles we won, and win a few more!

Here is our tentative schedule for 2008 Season:

May 28-31 : BoatUS Santa Maria Cup – (Grade 1 – J/22) - Annapolis, MD
July 9-13 : Mayor’s Cup - (Grade 2 – Catalina 37) - Long Beach, CA
July 30 - Aug 4 : Lysekil Women’s Match Race - (Grade 1 – DS 37) - Gullmar, Sweden
September 10-14 : US Women’s Match Race Championship - (Grade 3 - Sonar) - Rochester, NY
October 15-19 : Rolex Osprey Cup - (Grade 1 - Sonar) - St. Petersburg, FL
December 5-7 : Carlos Aguilar Memorial Match Race Championship - (Grade 3 – IC 24) - St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

You may ask: “How can I help the SFWMRT reach the next level?” The Team needs your financial support now as much as ever and the Belvedere Cove Foundation (www.belvederecove.org, P.O. Box 786, Belvedere, CA 94920) is accepting charitable donations on our behalf to help offset our travel costs.

Thank you again for all of your support throughout this season and we look forward to your continued support for the upcoming match racing season!

Cheers,

Liz, Karina, Suzy, Lee, Melinda, Pease, Shala, Denise, Sue, Karyn, Chafee, Aimee, Cory, Hannah, and Taylor

The 2007-08 San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

We apologize for the confusing note yesterday. Today’s will be much clearer: We won our semi-final round against Silja Lehtinen (FIN) which moved us up from 4^th to 2^nd and into a spot in the finals, BUT we must have played all of our puff cards and there was no wind remaining in Waitemata Harbour and the finals were cancelled, so Claire Leroy and her crew from France defended their World title and the San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team finished in second. Sure, we’re disappointed that we did not have a chance sail for the championship, but we were very happy to move up from Friday’s 8^th place to Sunday’s second place. We saw typical Auckland weather – “If you don’t like the weather wait five minute and it will change.” We saw the whole range of conditions this week and tried to take advantage where we could.

The final results from the 2008 Worlds:

1^st – Claire Leroy (FRA)

2^nd – Liz Baylis (USA)

3^rd – Silja Lehtinen (FIN)

4^th – Josie Gibson (GBR)

5^th Katie Spithill (AUS)

6^th Silke Hahlbrok (GBR)

7^th Nicky Souter (AUS)

8^th Jess Smyth (NZL)

9th Christelle Philippe (FRA)

10th Lotte Medldgaard (DEN)

11th Camilla Ulrikkeholm (DEN)

12th Sabrina Gurioli (ITA)

13th Jan Dawson (NZL)

14th Gemma Farrell (GBR)

We would like to thank a lot of people: Our family who stayed home and let us travel to these events (Todd, Dave, Anna, and Jed), our family who travelled with us (Boots, Andy, and Nicole), our families who took care of us on this trip (Wendy, Zetta, Paul, Phil, Karen, Taylor), our coaches (Jeff Madrigali, Mark Ivey, and Michael Dunstan), our adopted coaches in New Zealand (Traks Gordon and Harold Bennett) and, of course, our sponsors and supporters and the Belvedere Cove Foundation back home! THANK YOU!

Thanks for all of your support!

Cheers,

Liz, Karina, Lee, and Suzy

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

I’m not sure we can write it better than the press release from the RNZYS:

Southern Hemisphere rivals knocked out of top four contention in quarter-finals; first two matches completed in semi-finals

Claire Leroy of France, Silja Lehtinen of Finland, Liz Baylis of the USA and Josie Gibson from Great Britain each secured two wins from two races in today’s Quarter Finals, knocking their opponents out of top four contention in the BSPORT ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championships.

Before racing concluded for the day Leroy went on to secure two wins over Gibson in the first Flights of the Semi Finals, with Baylis and Lehtinen squared at one-all.

Conditions on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour have been the lightest yet, presenting 10-14 knots from the North-East, with flat seas and strong tides.

The final two flights in the Repechage were completed this morning, with Baylis joining Australian Katie Spithill as the two last-chance contenders for the remaining Quarter Final spots.

We had a good day today and we’re primed for another good one tomorrow! So, now we have to win two more races in our semi-finals against Silja then move onto the finals.

We have the end of daylight savings tonight so we get an extra hour sleep tonight. Woohoo!

Keep the good vibes coming!

RNZYS web site:

http://www.rnzys.org.nz

or

http://www.rnzys.org.nz/Sailing/Regattas/ISAFWomensWorlds/tabid/251/Default.aspx

or

http://tinyurl.com/yo6ugp

Some photos:

http://www.sail-world.com/nz/

or

http://www.rnzys.org.nz/Gallery/tabid/55/AlbumID/455-32/Default.aspx

Weather - http://www.metservice.co.nz/default/index.php?alias=aucklandinshore

Thanks for all of the notes of support!  Okay, enough for tonight, time for bed. More tomorrow!

Cheers,

Liz, Karina, Lee, and Suzy

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

Long day on the water, but a productive one for the San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team. We starting racing today for the BSPORT ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championships 2008 in Waitemata Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand. We saw a range of winds today – mostly breezy, but a few races with light/moderate shifty breeze.

The week of training in Sydney with our coach, Michael Dunstan, is definitely paying dividends as our boat handling and boat speed were quite good today even though we had not practiced in any breeze. Our starts were good and we sailed well around the course in the challenging conditions.

Total Points (after flight eight):

Silja Lehtinen FIN - 5 wins / 1 loss / 6 races

Nicky Souter AUS - 4 / 1 / 5

Liz Baylis USA - 4 / 1 / 5

Jessica Smyth NZL - 4 / 2 / 6

Josie Gibson GBR - 4 / 2 / 6

Claire Leroy FRA - 4 / 2 / 6

Katie Spithill AUS - 3 / 3 / 6

Silke Hahlbrock GER - 3 / 3 / 6

Christelle Philippe FRA - 3 / 3 / 6

Lotte Meldgaard DEN - 2 / 3 / 5

Gemma Farrell GBR - 2 / 3 / 5

Sabrina Gurioli ITA - 2 / 4 / 6

Jan Dawson NZL - 0 / 6 / 6

Camilla Ulrikkeholm DEN - 0 / 6 / 6

RNZYS web site:

http://www.rnzys.org.nz

or http://tinyurl.com/yo6ugp

Some photos: http://www.sail-world.com/nz/

Weather - http://www.metservice.co.nz/default/index.php?alias=aucklandinshore

Thanks for all of the notes of support! More tomorrow!

Cheers,

Liz, Karina, Lee, and Suzy

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team