SFWMRT at BoatUS Santa Maria Cup - Preview
We’re in Annapolis getting ready for the Grade 1 BoatUS Santa Maria Cup (SMC). This is our 11th straight year competing in this event which we won in 2003. We’re hoping to get back atop the podium this year which could be a tough task with some of the top teams in the world competing: World #1 Claire Leroy (FRA), 2006 SMC winner Katie Spithill (AUS), and top US competitors - Genny Tulloch, Katy Lovell and Jo Ann Fisher. Our team for the event is Liz-driving, Carol Cronin-tactics, Karina Shelton-trim, and Kim Couranz-bow.
This week in addition to being the San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team, we are representing the US Sailing Center – Sheboygan. For those who are geographically challenged you may wonder where Sheboygan is and how it is connected with San Francisco. Sheboygan is in Wisconsin and is on Lake Michigan. The USSCS is the 4th US Sailing Center in the US and is dedicated to match racing.
Today we borrowed our friend, Greg Fisher’s (North Sails – Annapolis) boat and went out for a couple of practice sessions. It was light, hot, and humid, but we got some good light air boat handling practice in. Tomorrow we have the official practice time in the afternoon followed by a “A la Mode Pro-Am fleet race” where the SMC fleet races with some local teams. A la Mode is the name of lingerie shop owned by our hosts, Sharon and Jeff Borland. It was a pretty amusing couple of races last year and we expect it will be the same this year!
Teams Competing:
Leroy, Claire (FRA) (Elodie Bertrand, Claire Pruvot, Marie Riou)
Baylis, Liz (USA) (Carol Cronin, Karina Shelton, Kim Couranz)
Spithill, Katie (AUS) (Stacey Jackson, Jessica Eastwell, Rayshele Martin)
Bossard, Julie (FRA) (Sophie d’Ortoli, Pauline Chalaux, Morgane Gautier)
Lovell, Katy (USA) (Maegan Ruhlman, Lindsay Bartel, Amy Gross-Kehoe)
Mariani, Lorenza (ITA) (Chiara Forcignano, Carmen Pardo, Marcella Trioschi)
Fisher, JoAnn (USA) (Casey Williams, Debbie Probst, Lynda Hiller)
Tulloch, Genny (USA) (Liz Hall, Jamie Haines, Elizabeth Kratzig)
Ramires, Maria (POR) (Flavia Contino, Ana Rocha, Madalena Barbosa)
Senfft, Juliana (BRA) (Gabriela Sa, Marina Jardim, Adhara Ginaid)
The daily results for the BoatU.S. Santa Maria Cup can be found at: http://www.santamariacup.org/results.asp and the daily images of the days race can be found at: http://drop.io/eycsantamariacup2009
The weather forecasts:
http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/ofs/cbofs/wind_forecast.shtml
(To find Annapolis: The latitude of Annapolis is 38.978N – between Washington and Baltimore, but over to the right a little.)
Or
NOAA weather: http://tinyurl.com/4jugja
Thanks for your encouragement!
Cheers,
Liz, Carol, Karina, and Kim
The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team