Mayor’s Cup 2008 presented by St. Mary Medical Center hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club

July 10, 2008

’07 champ and young Kiwi take day one at Mayor’s Cup

LONG BEACH, Calif.---Liz Baylis, 2007 Mayor’s Cup champ, and 21-year-old Samantha Osborne from New Zealand are one and two Thursday after day one of the 2008 Mayor’s Cup presented by St. Mary Medical Center and hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club.

Baylis was undefeated in the seven races that completed the first round-robin of the event.

“The team sailed really well together,” Baylis said. “We had a couple of not so good starts, but overall, obviously, it was a good day. Everyone is going fast and nothing was easy today.”

As for her strategy for Friday, Baylis said, “We’re going to keep going fast with more of the same.”

Solid in second place with five wins on the day, Osborne, from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, had a tough beginning Thursday when on her first race the weather mark was moved and, she said with a wry smile, “We decided to go around the wrong top mark. So then we decided we had to make up for our mistake.

“We were just meat and potatoes today, keeping it simple. The girls [team] are pretty terrific… they’re legends.”

Sandy Hayes, Scituate, Mass. was in third place and felt her team could have done better.

Hayes said, “It definitely wasn’t one of our better days. The first two races were great, but after that we struggled. We had a lot of great comebacks, which we then lost.”

As for Friday Hayes said, “We’re going to stay focused and stay fast.”

Racing continues Friday starting around 11:30 a.m. (weather permitting) with the start of the second round robin and can be viewed both Friday and Saturday from the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier. 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

FIRST ROUND ROBIN STANDINGS
(7 rounds)

1. Baylis, 7-0
2. Osborne, 5-2
3. Hayes, 4-3
4. Arms-Cartee, 4-3 (lost to Hayes)
5. Hjorth, 3-4
6. Lovell, 3-4 (lost to Hjorth)
7. Thorelius, 2-5
8. Bejar, 0-7

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

PRESS OFFICER
Rick Roberts
email: ricksoffice (at) sbcglobal.net
310.834.6682