Nominees for the Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year awards have been announced.
The winners will be named at the New York Yacht Club Feb. 9, where they will be presented with Rolex watches(steel and gold Submariner for him, steel and gold Oyster Lady Datejust for her).
The nominations, determined by the membership of US SAILING, which represents U.S. sailing interests to the International Olympic Committee, will be presented to a panel of noted sailing journalists (my invitation seems to be missing), who will discuss the merits of each nominee andvote by secret ballot.
Male nominees are: Etchells-class world champion Vince Brun; men’s 470-class Olympic silver medalists Paul Foerster and Bob Merrick (nominated as a team; they’ll rock-paper-scissors for the watch); 49er-class Olympic bronze medalists Jonathan and Charlie McKee (ditto); J/24-class world champion Brad Read; and Star-class Olympic gold medalists and world champions Mark Reynolds and Magnus Liljedahl (ditto).
Female nominees are: women’s Mistral-class Olympian Lanee Butler; Snipe-class North American national and women’s national champion Carol Newman Cronin; women’s 470-class Olympic silver medalists JJ Isler and Pease Glaser (rumor has it they’ve agreed to thumb wrestling for the watch); and America’s Cup semifinalist Dawn Riley.
When the ballot gets here, I’ll vote for Reynolds and Liljedahl on the men’s side because of the difficulty winning a world championship and Olympic gold in the same year. I’d choose Dawn Riley on the women’s side for going farther with her single-boat AmericaTrue campaign (sponsored in part by Chicago’s Columbia Yacht Club) than anyone anticipated and for breaking ground as the first woman to lead an America’s Cup campaign.
Flotsam and jetsam
– Roy Disney will come to Northwestern University’s Pick-Staiger Hall at 7 p.m. Feb. 23, according to Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation Commodore Glenn McCarthy. A frequent TransPac skipper and co-owner of the 70-foot-plus maxi sled Pyewacket, Disney will be talking sailing and presenting about 40 minutes of his two-hour movie “TransPac–A century across the Pacific.” Copies of the entire film will be available for purchase for $60 in DVD or VHS formats, according to McCarthy. Admission donations ($25 for adults, $10 for juniors–21 and younger) go to the Federation Endowment Fund and the Northwestern sailing team, he said. Tickets are available through www.lmsrf.org. Tickets not sold on the Web will be available at the door.
– Sailing World magazine named the Schock 40 overall winner (as well as best sportboat and best innovation) in its Boat of the Year competition. The most notable aspect is the boat’s canting-ballast, twin-foil technology. Canting ballast means the keel swings from side to side to optimize heel. Twin-foil means two rudders: one forward, one aft. The boat costs about $190,000. Visit www.wdschock.com. Sailing World’s category winners were the Vanguard Vector ($8,000) in performance dinghy, X-482 ($500,000) in offshore racer, J/145 ($530,000) in racer/cruiser and Taipan 4.9 ($11,275) in performance multihull.
– Score one for “Can’t we all just get along.” Twenty-five yacht clubs from Santa Barbara to San Diego and as far inland as Arizona host the Southern California Yachting Association’s Midwinter Regatta Feb. 17 and 18. More than 40 one-design classes are invited, as are boats sailing under PHRF (Performance Handicap Racing Fleet), Portsmouth, AMERICAP and other handicapping systems. There are also land-sailing, model boat and powerboat predicted log events. Too bad they couldn’t work in rowers and paddlers. Visit www.scya.org/midwintr/2001/mw2001.html.
– National governing body US SAILING plans to conduct the 2001 USA Junior Olympic Sailing Festivals, 19 regional events and the JO Sailing Championship, beginning with the Atlanta regional event in May. Downstate Carlyle Lake will hold a regional event June 23. The JO program is a program that seeks to find young people with an interest in sailing and develop their skills through competition. More than 10,000 people have participated in the program in its first four years. Visit www.ussailing.org/youth/racing/jo/.
Nauti-bits
– A sled is an ultralight displacement boat designed for downwind racing, i.e. going “downhill.” A turbo sled has a larger sail area and other tweaks to make it faster than run-of-the-mill sleds.
– Pyewacket is a famous animated Disney Studio cat. Roy Disney’s record-setting Santa Cruz 70 turbo sled carried that name, as does his current record-setting maxi.
– Beating is heading into the wind, which is what the boats racing in the BT Challenge do for much of their journey and is contrary to conditions sleds, Vendee Globe and The Race boats are designed to sail in. The race is going on in the Southern Hemisphere right now.
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Ready to get out on the water again? So’s Mike Esposito. E-mail him at mesposito@tribune.com.
