Liz Baylis

The next regatta for the San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team is the Grade 1 Lysekil Women’s Match 2008 in Lysekil, Sweden (about 100 km north of Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden). The regatta runs from Monday July 28^th (practice day) through Saturday August 2^nd. We will be racing the 37 foot Danish-designed match racing boats, the DS 37s, with a crew of six. For this event we have a mixture of new and old: Liz – driving; Molly Carapiet – tactician; Karina Shelton – trimming; Dana Riley – trimming; Alice Manard – trimming; and Suzy Leech on the bow. Liz, Karina, and Suzy did this same event last year. Molly is moving from the main trim position at Mayor’s Cup to become tactician. And the new comers to the team are Dana and Alice. Both are experienced sailors who have been sailing on the match racing circuit for a long time – Dana with Charlie Arms-Cartee and Alice with Katy Lovell, and we look forward to having them join us for this event.

The competition for this event is going to be tough – over half of the competitors are ranked in the top ten in the world.

Claire Leroy, FRA, Ranking: 1
Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen, DEN, Ranking: 2
Katie Spithill, AUS, Ranking: 3
Silke Hahlbrock, GER, Ranking: 4
Elizabeth Baylis, USA, Ranking: 5
Linda Rahm, SWE, Ranking: 9
Jenny Axhede, SWE, Ranking: 10
Sabrina Gurioli, ITA, Ranking: 12
Camilla Ulrikkeholm, DEN, Ranking: 14
Lucy MacGregor, GBR, Ranking: 22
Anna Kjellberg, SWE, Ranking: 23
Anne-Claire Le Berre, FRA, Ranking: 61

We are looking forward to some great sailing and fantastic competition. It should be a fun event.

So far the long-term weather forecast looks okay:
http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/SWXX0122

If you care to follow the regatta on the web: http://www.lysekilwomensmatch.se/

Many of you have made donations to the Belvedere Cove Foundation on behalf of our team – your generosity continues to help us strive to reach our goals. In addition to our support from the Belvedere Cove Foundation, for this regatta we have received a very generous grant from the San Francisco Yacht Club Board of Directors. Thank you very much, one and all, for your support.

We look forward to bringing you updates from Lysekil!

Cheers,
Liz, Molly, Karina, Dana, Alice, and Suzy
The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

The boys had a slow night trying to move south to more pressure which hopefully will put them in a better position in the days to come… Wait and See!

To follow what is going on, visit the Pacific Cup page:

http://pacificcup.org/index.html

Each day at around 1100, the links to the new position charts and standings are posted on the left side.

Here is the link to the track of E.T’s class today. It is based on the morning check in and not on the transponder (which is good because E.T.’s transponder stopped transmitting on Saturday morning):

http://pacificcup.org/08/charts/d9/DDtm.html

(Remember that E.T. is the slowest rated boat in their class, so just because their track shows them “behind” they’re doing okay!)

And here are today’s results:

http://pacificcup.org/08/positions/pc08-prd9.html

E.T. and the boys had another good day yesterday! They are currently in 3rd in their class (picking up 5 hours on the leader) and have moved up to 5th overall.

To follow what is going on, visit the Pacific Cup page:

http://pacificcup.org/index.html

Each day at around 1100, the links to the new position charts and standings are posted on the left side.

Here is the link to the track of E.T’s class today. It is based on the morning check in and not on the transponder (which is good because E.T.’s transponder stopped transmitting on Saturday morning):

http://pacificcup.org/08/charts/d8/DDtm.html

(Remember that E.T. is the slowest rated boat in their class, so just because their track shows them “behind” they’re doing great!)

And here are today’s results:

http://pacificcup.org/08/positions/pc08-prd8.html

Looks good!

Here’s an article in the local (Port Washington, NY) newspaper about the upcoming Knickerbocker Cup (August 20-24):

http://www.antonnews.com/portwashingtonnews/2008/07/18/sports/otb.html

Here is a photo of our guys heading under the Gate:

We (Tom Montoya, Roger Hedin (Todd’s Dad), Peter Fisher (Todd’s brother-in-law), and Liz) borrowed Glenn and Gaby Isaacson’s boat, Q, and towed E.T. and the boys from San Francisco YC to the City Front for the start.

A group of fans led by Linda English (Tony’s wife) waved good-bye from atop the Golden Gate Bridge

They started in about 18 knots of breeze at the beginning of the ebb, so there was ebb on the shore and still flood in the middle. A few of the boats (Sapphire, Summer Moon, and Buzz Off) chose to start with reefed mains – our tough guys did not and paid a little by being over-powered off the line and out the Gate, but it moderated about ½ way to Point Bonita. We left them there with smiles and waves and motored home to warm and sunny Belvedere! By the time we passed back under the Gate, only one boat could be seen on the foggy horizon.

Tonight’s weather forecast looks pretty good. San Francisco Buoy (18 miles out) is showing about 15-20 knots from the WNW. This should hold through the night, so they should be moving right along. The sea state (waves) didn’t seem too bad, so hopefully everyone’s stomachs will be okay tonight.

Twas the Night Before Pac Cup, and all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,

Just our favorite sailors on mighty E.T.

Todd Hedin ! Tony English ! Buzz Blackett ! That’s all !!

Sailing fast to Hawaii with “mail to haul”

Driving a Sleigh to Kaneohe Bay !

Their fans are all set to get the email

For an exciting and adventuresome sea story tale

As you have probably heard from the crew, I am happily serving as the email gateway for their communications. We use a gateway person to keep the communications consolidated from boat to land as the total bandwidth is limited and racers need to use that bandwidth for weather data downloads too. That being said, they love to hear from you and so when they write us, if you want to reply, please do but keep it short and I will consolidate and possibly edit it to fit their constraints (a paragraph is fine). From experience I can tell you in light winds they love jokes. In heavy winds they may not be writing us and they will definitely not be reading what we send – they will be too busy. But they will get back on line in a couple of days. So I may send an email just to let you know I have not heard anything. Not to worry.

Websites to watch are:
www.pacificcup.org

www.fistracking.com

www.norcalsailing.com

Good Luck E.T.

(Sue Senescu has volunteered to relay the updates from the boat - Thanks, Sue!)

E.T. with Todd and Tony and Buzz sailing her are just about ready to take off on Pacific Cup - they start tomorrow (Wednesday, July 16th).  You can follow the action on the Pacific Cup web site - www.pacificcup.org  There was also a nice article published today on the NorCal Sailing web site - norcalsailing.com .  The weather looks good for their start and they should have a good first few day.

Just a quick note, more details later!

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team won the 2008 Mayor’s Cup!

The team had another good day today – winning the final match in the round robin to finish the round robins undefeated and be in a position to pick our competitor for the semi-finals. We chose the fourth place team, Charlie Arms-Cartee. We won both matches in the semis to advance to the finals to meet Sandy Hayes, who had also won both matches in her semi-finals against Sam Osborne. We then had two spirited matches with Sandy in the finals which we won, but not without some excitement! Sam beat Charlie 2-1 in the petit-finals to take third.

We’ll write more later!

Thank you for your continued encouragement and support!

Cheers,

Liz, Pease, Molly, Karina, Shala, Sue, and Suzy

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team