Top Women’s match racers return to Long Beach
(Written by Rick Roberts - Thursday, 03 July 2008)

LONG BEACH, Calif.---Long Beach plays host Thursday through Saturday, July 10-12 to the world’s top women match racers when St. Mary Medical Center presents the fourth annual Mayor’s Cup hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club.

Skippers from around the world will compete in identically prepared Catalina 37s owned and maintained by the Long Beach Yacht Club Sailing Foundation in this International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Grade 2 event which is part of the 2008 City of Long Beach Sea Festival, presented by Charter Communications.

San Francisco Yacht Club’s Liz Baylis is back to defend her 2007 Mayor’s Cup win and is currently ranked fifth in ISAF Women’s rankings.

Having just won a silver medal in the 2008 Women’s Match Racing World Championship in Auckland, New Zealand, Baylis comments on where her team goes from here.

“Are we resting on our laurels? Heck no,” Baylis said. “We’re hungrier than ever to compete at the top level, defend the titles we won, and win a few more.”

Baylis will have her work cut out for her with an impressive list of challengers: Katy Lovell, New Orleans, La.; Sandy Hayes, Scituate, Mass.; Caroline Béjar, Brazil; Lotta Thorelius, Sweden; Charlie Arms-Cartee, San Diego, Calif.; Liz Hjorth, Marina del Rey, Calif. and Samantha Osborne, New Zealand.

In keeping with the Port of Long Beach’s motto, “Your environmentally friendly port,” during the event each on-the-water umpire boat will have special nets, supplied by West Marine, and buckets to pick up trash on the water around the race course for the benefit of the City of Long Beach and the sailing community as a whole.

ISAF umpire Kirk Brown will brief the umpires on this environmentally aware service, making certain the trash is collected from the umpire boats at the end of each day’s racing and properly disposed of.

“I don’t know of any other event doing this”, Brown said, “and it is in keeping with ISAF’s Strategic Plan.”

ISAF’s Strategic Plan states, in part, “To respect and safeguard our environment, to develop environmental programs for the sport, events and stakeholders.”

“There’s no downside to this,” said Brown. “We’re hoping other events will do the same.”

Racing action can be watched Thursday through Saturday from the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier beginning around 11:30 a.m. each day. Parking is available in the City of Long Beach public parking lot adjacent to the pier.

Mayor’s Cup skippers and their current ISAF Rankings:
Name Nation ISAF Rank
Liz Baylis USA 5
Katy Lovell USA 15
Sandy Hayes USA 16
Caroline Béjar BRA 28
Lotta Thorelius SWE 30
Charlie Arms-Cartee USA 48
Liz Hjorth USA 50
Samantha Osborne NZL 70

Race information is available at: www.mayorscuplongbeach.com.