| HAMILTON, BERMUDA-(10-10-2002) Top female sailors from Bermuda,
Sweden, the USA, Denmark and the Netherlands have been training diligently
for this year’s debut of the Bermuda International Women’s Match Race
Championship. Running concurrently with the Bermuda Gold Cup’s qualifying
round on October 12-15, the women’s series hosts eight skipper and teams
who — true to the Bermuda Gold Cup match racing tradition — will test their
tactical skills against each other in one-on-one round robin competition.
The Bermuda Gold Cup women’s event will decide who takes what portion of a
$15,000 prize pot and secures two berths, reserved for the winner and
runner-up, in the headlining Bermuda Gold Cup Championship Rounds (October
16-20) where another $65,000 in prize money will be up for grabs.
This is the first time at a women’s sailing event in North America that
prize money has been offered to competitors. The amount of $15,000 may seem
small compared to other women’s sports, like tennis or golf, but women
sailors see it as a big step.
“It certainly makes the event more attractive,” says Liz Baylis of San
Rafael, Calif., the reigning Women’s World Match Racing Champion. “Not all
professional athletes get huge endorsement deals and make large incomes. For
a sailing regatta to attract major corporate support and offer this kind of
prize money tells the rest of the corporate community that women’s sailing
is a good investment.”
Baylis, ranked third in the world in match racing, will have her work cut
out for her. She will compete head-to-head with both the current #1 and #2
world-ranked skippers: Marie Bjorling of Sweden and Lotte Meldgaard
Pedersen of Denmark, respectively. Also one to be watched, Bermuda’s own
top match racer Paul Lewin will return to her home waters, where she has
competed before in the Bermuda Gold Cup among the unseeded skippers, leading
her all-woman team through to the qualifying rounds in 1995. Pedersen,
Lewin and Klaartje Zuiderbaan, another skipper competing from the
Netherlands, are highly recognizable names both from match racing circles
and the Olympic arena. Within the past two years, Pedersen and Lewin have
undertaken a Yngling campaign in hopes of representing her country in the
2004 Games in Greece.
Zuiderbaan recently completed the Volvo Ocean Race aboard Amer Sports Too,
taking a 16-month break from match racing. This is her first North American
event and with a new team and no sponsors, the prize money certainly appeals
to the skipper, once ranked third in the world. “Basically, we’re starting
over as a new team and will use any prize money we earn toward our travel
costs. Each of us has paid our own way, so the better we do this weekend,
the more prize money we potentially earn,” said Zuiderbaan. “
But it’s not all about big names and rankings. Like at the Bermuda Gold Cup
main event, up-and-coming match racing skippers are welcome to test the
waters at the women’s event. This year, USA’s Sandy Hayes (Scituate,
Mass.), Elizabeth Kratzig (Corpus Christi, Texas) and Deborah Willits
(Houston, Texas), all accomplished fleet racing sailors who are cutting
their teeth on match racing, have been tapped as the best bets for giving
the established stars a run for their money.
The event is hosted by the RBYC and the Bermuda Department of Tourism.
Renaissance Reinsurance and Investors Guaranty are the Presenting Sponsors.
Primary Sponsors are Bacardi, Continental Airlines and Swedish Match Tour.
Supporting sponsors are Cellular One, Coral Beach and Tennis Club, Horizons
and Cottages, Izod, Northrock, Office Solutions, Smatt’s Cycles, Sonesta,
Telecom, Waterloo House and Wedgwood.
The Bermuda Gold Cup is an Octagon-managed event. The website for the
regatta is www.bermudagoldcup.com.
|
