Liz Baylis

Hi,

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team (SFWMRT) heads to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, for the inaugural Carlos Aguilar Memorial Match Race Regatta tomorrow.  This will be the last event in our 2008 season so we are looking to have some fun and end the year on a high note with a win!  The team for this event brings together a mix of great sailors who have been a part of the SFWMRT over the years: Liz will take her normal position in the back of the boat; Pease Glaser calling tactics and trimming the main; Cory Sertl trimming the jib and spinnaker; and Jo Ann Fisher running around on the bow.

We will be sailing a boat that is somewhat unique to the Virgin Islands: An IC 24 – this is a J/24 hull and rig that has had the deck removed and replaced with a more “user-friendly” deck layout like the Melges 24.  We’ll try to post some photos or get some links so you can see what they are like.

The event is being hosted by the St. Thomas Yacht Club and their web site is http://www.styc.net/index.php  Hopefully, there will be information posted there during the week.

The weather link: http://www.wunderground.com/US/VI/Saint_Thomas.html

In case we again have trouble with our mailing list (hopefully the gremlins are gone), we will be posting our reports on Liz’s web site as well: http://lizbaylis.com/

More soon!

Cheers,
Liz, Pease, Cory, and Jo Ann
The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

Yesterday the top four sailed the semi-finals and we sailed against Sato for 5th.

In the first semi-final, Sally Barkow (USA) beat Susanne Ward (DEN) 3-0.  And in the second semi-final, Claire Leroy (FRA) beat Katie Spithill (AUS) 3-0, thus setting up the Franco-American finals of Barkow vs. Leroy.  The petit-finals will see Spithill vs. Ward.

In the lower places, we beat Sato (JPN) 3-0 to claim 5th and Tylinska (POL) beat Boyd (AUS) to take 7th.

Lower placings:
5th: Baylis (USA)
6th: Sato (JPN)
7th: Tylinska (POL)
8th: Boyd (AUS)
9th: Naik (IND)
10th: Li xue (CHN)
11th: Lim (KOR)

Our fifth place did earn us enough prize money to help defray most of our travel costs (even after the 27.5% !!! tax the Korean government is taking off the top), so that made our final finish position a little less disappointing.

For the finals today, Liz will be doing the live English commentary on the beach for the festival.  It’s a pretty big deal here which is really cool.

The event web site is http://www.bsaf.or.kr/event_eng/event_01.htm has a lot of photos posted now.  We have a bunch of photos as well and will try to post some soon on www.lizbaylis.com or on one of our Facebook pages.

Cheers,
Liz, Molly, Shala, Karen, and Sam
The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

After some exciting racing off Haeundae Beach, the finals are set for the 2008 Busan Women’s World Match.

In the first semi-final, Sally Barkow (USA) beat Susanne Ward (DEN) 3-0.  And in the second semi-final, Claire Leroy (FRA) beat Katie Spithill (AUS) 3-0, thus setting up the Franco-American finals of Barkow vs. Leroy.  The petit-finals will see Spithill vs. Ward.

In the lower places, Baylis (USA) beat Sato (JPN) 3-0 to claim 5th and Tylinska (POL) beat Boyd (AUS) to take 7th.

Lower placings:
5th: Baylis (USA)
6th: Sato (JPN)
7th: Tylinska (POL)
8th: Boyd (AUS)
9th: Naik (IND)
10th: Li xue (CHN)
11th: Lim (KOR)

For more information, results, and photos, visit the event website: http://www.bsaf.or.kr/event_eng/event_01.htm

We went out yesterday knowing we had our work cut out for us as Barkow, Leroy, Spithill and Ward were all sailing well and only four of us would make it into the semi-finals.  After a long delay waiting for wind, our first match was against Ward.  We were overlapped going around the leeward mark and for the first time in the regatta our crew work let us down and we had an awful rounding and never had a chance to recover. We then had a LONG wait on the beach while others raced, then went out on the water for our last two matches. Our penultimate match was against the Japanese and we lead all the way around and they had a very problematic leeward mark rounding and could not get their spinnaker down, so we did not need to fly a spinnaker on the second run to win by well over a leg.  This set up our match with Claire Leroy.  We started even but to leeward and got out to the port layline and followed her in to the mark. We gained on both downwind legs, but never enough to really attack her, so we lost that one.

The results after the complete Round Robin:
Barkow 9-1
Leroy 9-1
Ward 8-2
Spithill 8-2
Baylis 6-4
Sato 3.5-6 (.5 off for damage)
Boyd 3-7
Tylinska 3-7
Li xue 2-8
Naik 2-8
Lim 1-9

Today (Saturday here, Friday at home) the top four will sail the semi-finals and we will sail against Sato for 5th.

The internet connection here is a bit sketchy and we’ve been having a little trouble with the mailing list, so if you aren’t getting the updates, please check on our web site: http://www.lizbaylis.com.

We’ll try to keep you updated the best we can over the next few days, but if you are looking for information the event web site is http://www.bsaf.or.kr/event_eng/event_01.htm seems to be updated regularly.

Last night we attended a performance of “Jump”, a world renowned “Korean Martial Arts Comedy”.  It was great.  If you want to read about it: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/111694.html
Cheers,
Liz, Molly, Shala, Karen, and Sam
The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

Another interesting day on the water.  We sailed the first flight out away from the beach in the middle of the channel where there was steadier breeze, but a bit of current. Our match was against Sam Boyd from Australia and our crew work was great which allowed us to take advantage of our opponent’s poor leeward mark rounding and extend for the win.  We then had thee flights off and the racing moved back tot he beach side venue.  By the time we went back out for our race against Sally Barkow the breeze was very spotty and we found a good hole while Sally escaped around the first mark and that was it.  Our next two matches were against the Polish team, Tylinska, and the Korean team, Lim, and we were able to control the starts and extend for two more wins.

The results after 13 of 19 flights:
Leroy 6-0
Spithill 4-2
Baylis 5-2
Barkow 7-1
Ward 6-1
Boyd 3-4
Tylinska 2-6
Sato 3-4
Li xue 1-6
Lim 0-7
Naik 1-6

Tomorrow we think we will continue the round robin. The conditions have been tough on the Organizers to say the least!

The internet connection here is a bit sketchy and we’ve been having a little trouble with the mailing list, so if you aren’t getting the updates, please check on our web site: http://www.lizbaylis.com.

We’ll try to keep you updated the best we can over the next few days, but if you are looking for information the event web site is http://www.bsaf.or.kr/event_eng/event_01.htm seems to be updated regularly.

Cheers,
Liz, Molly, Shala, Karen, and Sam
The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

Yesterday was the practice day and we got to experience the new boats for the first time. Everyone seemed to have fun trying to figure out the boats and the 50 degree wind shifts sailing along the beach in the lee of a big hill.

Today we started the round robin. Since there are six boats and eleven teams, everybody only sails half the time. Most of the teams have sailed three matches so far. We sat out the first three flights then raced three flights before it started to get dark. Our first match was a little more exciting than it should have been as we had a little contact with the Indian team, Naik, at the start and got penalized. We cleared our penalty then got a penalty on Naik and won the match. Our next match was against Katie Spithill and we lost the start then got close, but never quite close enough. And we ended the day against the Chinese team, Li xue. They received an early entry penalty and we were able to extend and win the match.

The results after 6 of 19 flights:

Leroy 3-0

Spithill 2-1

Baylis 2-1

Barkow 3-0

Ward 2-1

Boyd 1-2

Tylinska 2-1

Sato 1-2

Li xue 1-3

Lim 0-5

Naik 1-2

Tomorrow we will continue the round robin.

The internet connection here is a bit sketchy and we’ve been having a little trouble with the mailing list, so if you aren’t getting the updates, please check on our web site: http://www.lizbaylis.com.

We’ll try to keep you updated the best we can over the next few days, but if you are looking for information the event web site is http://www.bsaf.or.kr/event_eng/event_01.htm seems to be updated regularly.

Cheers,

Liz, Molly, Shala, Karen, and Sam

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team is gathering in Busan, Korea, for our penultimate event of the 2008 season – The Busan Women’s World Match Race.  This event will be a truly international event with nine countries represented including for the first time ever – 4 Asian countries – Korea, China, Japan, and India. There will also be four teams ranked in the top ten in the World:

Claire Leroy (FRA) - ISAF #1
Liz Baylis (USA) - ISAF #4
Katie Spithill (AUS) - ISAF #5
Sally Barkow (USA) - ISAF #10
Susanne Ward (DEN) - ISAF #44
Samantha Boyd (AUS) - ISAF #45
Katarzyna Tylinska (POL) - unranked
Li Xue (CHN) - unranked
Maiko Sato (JPN) - unranked
Pallavi Naik (IND) - unranked
Lim Hwa eun (KOR) -  unranked

The SFWMRT for this event is: Liz (driving), Molly Carapiet (tactics/main trim), Karen Loutzenheiser (trim), Samantha Osborne (trim), and Shala Lawrence (bow).  We will be sailing brand new boats – K 30s (or Bakewell White 9 meters) which are 30 footers with asymmetrical kites.

When we mentioned earlier that the boats are new, we really mean brand new – they have not been launched yet – we attended the christening ceremony Friday at Busan City Hall and they are frantically getting them put together.  Hopefully they will be ready for practice tomorrow!

Shala, Molly and Liz went for a big 4 hour hike in the mountains above Busan near a fortress with a number of beautiful temples.  Sam and Karen arrive later tonight.

We’ll try to keep you updated the best we can over the next few days, but I you are looking for information the event web site is http://www.bsaf.or.kr/event_eng/event_01.htm and hopefully it will be updated regularly.

Cheers,
Liz, Molly, Shala, Karen, and Sam
The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

ISAF has released the new Women’s World Match Racing Rankings and the San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team remains the top U.S. team and holds on to the #4 spot in the World!

Claire Leroy (FRA) has a stranglehold on the #1 spot, but with two more events on our schedule for 2008 and the #2 spot less than 400 points above us, we still have the opportunity to finish the year at our highest ever ranking - #2!

To view the complete list:  http://tinyurl.com/2r8oft

Our next two events:

October 30 - November 2 : Busan Women’s Cup - Busan, South Korea
December 5-7 : Carlos Aguilar Memorial Match Race - St. Thomas, USVI

In addition to racing in the event in Korea, Molly Carapiet and I will be teaching a WIMRA clinic in Busan the week before the regatta.

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement!

Cheers,

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

(Liz, Karina, Suzy, Molly, Lee, Pease, Cory, Carol, Abby, Emily, Jenna, Sue, Shala, Dana, Alice, Hannah, and Taylor)

The quarter-finals went according to the seeding with Tulloch, SFWMRT, Tunnicliffe-Funk, and Fisher winning their pairs.  This left Tulloch to choose her Semi-final opponent and she chose JoAnn Fisher which left the SFWMRT against Tunnicliffe-Funk in the other semi-final pair.  Anna won the first match, we won the second match in a very spirited match that had a lot of exciting match racing elements (many flags, luffing, carrying past laylines, etc.).  So, it came down to the 3^rd race to decide who would go on to the finals and Anna’s team got ahead and stayed there to advance.  We faced JoAnn Fisher in the Petit-Finals which we won 2-0.  Anna went on to win the Finals 2-0 over Genny Tulloch to take the Championship.  Congratulations to Anna and her team – they sailed fast and had a great regatta.

We feel that we sailed a very good regatta and are happy with our performance.  Sure, we wish we had won, but we feel we sailed well and our match racing was improved over our recent events which made us happy.

The regatta websites have updates: http://www.rochesteryc.com/ or http://www.ussailing.org/championships/adult/women/uswmrc/

We have a few more events on our schedule this year including new events in Pusan, Korea and St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.

Please visit our website: www.lizbaylis.com to see what else we’re up to next!

Thanks again for your continued support of our team!

Cheers,

Liz, Carol, Cory, Suzy, and Abby

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team

After a delay on shore waiting for the wind to arrive and for the fog to clear, we sailed the second round robin of Stage 2.  We won three matches (Tunnicliffe-Funk, Tulloch, and Capozzi) and lost two (Fisher and Lovell).  So, we ended Stage 2 in second.  Now, on to the quarter-finals.  The pairing for the quarter-finals are:

1 Tulloch v. 8 Carapiet

2 SFWMRT v. 7 Hjorth

3 Tunnicliffe-Funk v. 6 Lovell

4 Fisher v. 5 Capozzi

The weather forecast for tomorrow is for a bit more breeze than today, so we should have some good racing for the last few rounds.

The regatta websites have updates: http://www.rochesteryc.com/ or http://www.ussailing.org/championships/adult/women/uswmrc/

More news tomorrow, but for now we are off to bed!

In the meantime, please visit our website: www.lizbaylis.com to see what else we’re up to.

Thanks again for your continued support of our team!

Cheers,

Liz, Carol, Cory, Suzy, and Abby

The San Francisco Women’s Match Racing Team