St. Mary Medical Center Presents The
Mayor’s Cup
In conjunction with Long
Beach Yacht Club, the Port of Long Beach, and Long Beach Sea Festival
July 14-16, 2005
July 7, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SIX SKIPPERS TO VIE FOR INAUGURAL MAYOR’S
CUP
Long Beach, CA – The
Long Beach Sea Festival kicked off Sunday, July 3rd with ‘Pier
Daze’ at the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier featuring music, food and fun.
On July 14, a new
type of music and fun will be on display at the same pier. The music will be
the sound of winches grinding and shouts of protest, and the fun, the sight of
sail-boat match racing up-close and personal.
Six all-female crews
will participate in the Inaugural Mayor’s Cup sponsored by St. Mary Medical
Center at the same venue as the Congressional Cup. The event will be sailed
on the evenly-matched Catalina 37’s from the Long Beach Yacht Club Sailing
Foundation and will be comprised of a double round-robin with a best of three
for the final two teams.
Louise Bienvenu from
New Orleans, Louisiana is ready to race. “I am honored by the invitation to
sail in this wonderful event in its first year of organization. We are very
excited to bring our team to Long Beach and race in big boats for the first
time against such fabulous competition as Sandy Hayes, who is a big boat
sailor and number two woman match racer in the United States.”
“Racing against such
fierce competition is a joy unto itself. And a great learning experience. My
personal goal is to sharpen my driving skills and acquire some new starting
maneuvers; the US Women's Match Racing Championship is in November! And, of
course, win. Second place is just the first team to lose.”
Bienvenu has no
experience on the Catalina 37, but Jessica Lords from Sausalito, California
does.
“My team is made up
of strong women who have all sailed the Catalina 37’s before and very
successfully I might add. I, personally, have done mast, bow and tactics on
the boat in the Women's Invitational, Bettina Bents and Long Beach Race Week
respectfully. However this will be my first time helming the boat and my
first regatta steering a boat with a wheel! My stint as bow chick was cut
short when I stepped into the open forward hatch and broke four ribs in the
process, but my team went on to win the Bettina Bents trophy without me.”
The Catalina 37, a
thirty-seven foot boat, was designed specifically for the Congressional Cup
and match racing. It has a flush deck with no interior and the hatch on the
bow is located on the starboard (right) side of the boat. When the crews
round the windward (upwind) mark, they can hoist their spinnaker right out of
the hatch and take it down again into the hatch at the leeward (downwind)
mark.
Long Beach is
notorious for its big wind in the summer months ranging from 15-25 knots
(17-29 mph), which is ideal for the Catalina 37 with a crew of seven.
The Mayor’s Cup events
will kick off with a visit by some of the crews to St. Mary Medical Center’s
cancer wing on Wednesday evening, July 13. Racing begins Thursday July 14 and
culminates with the finals on Saturday July 16.
Live commentary will
be broadcasted via public address system on the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier
throughout each race of the three day event. The public is invited to the
pier to watch the action free of charge.
About the Skippers
Liz Hjorth
is from Marina Del Rey, California and a member of California Yacht Club. She
has extensive buoy, offshore (taking a 3rd place overall in the
1997 Transpac as skipper of a Perry 56), and one-design racing experience
including the Rolex International Women’s Keelboat Championship.
Samantha Treadwell
is from Coronado, California and
a member of Coronado Yacht Club. Sam started racing dinghies as a child and
continued through college at UC Berkley where she led her team to the national
championships. Upon graduation, she moved back to San Diego where she placed
second in the Sundance Cup as tactician. She continues to stay active with
the dinghy classes as a coach for Coronado High School, and races keelboats as
well.
Jessica
Lord is from Sausalito,
California and a member of St. Francis Yacht Club. She was awarded the St.
Francis Yachtswomen of the Year award in 1999 and from 2001 to the present has
participated in the Sundance Cup and Santa Maria’s Cup. In 2004 she was the
winning tactician for “Bouncer” in the PHRF 6 fleet of Key West Race Week.
Louise Bienvenu
is from New Orleans, Louisiana and a founder of the Lake Pontchartrain Women’s
Sailing Association where she served as the first Commodore. She placed fifth
in her first Sundance Cup in 2003 and has gone on to compete in the 2003 US
Women’s Match Racing Championships and the 2004 Sundance Cup. She also took a
second place in the Southern Yacht Club One Design Women’s Keelboat regatta in
2004.
Katy Lovell
is also from New Orleans, Louisiana and is married to Olympic Tornado Class
Silver Medalist Johnny Lovell. She
grew up racing scows on Lake Minnetonka, MN, raced competitively for the
University of Hawaii and the College of Charleston, and was a member of the US
Sailing Team from 1993-1995. In 2002 she was the tactician for a forth place
in both the Sundance Cup and the Women’s International Match Race. In 2003
she was the winning tactician for the Sundance Cup and in 2004 a forth place
skipper for the same event.
Sandy Hayes
is from Newport, Rhode Island. She has been active in international match
racing since 2002 and has been ranked in the top twenty of the International
Sailing Federation (ISAF) Women’s Match Race Rankings since 2004. In 2004 she
won the Rolex Women’s Match Race and finished second in the 2003 and 2004
Sundance Cups.
About Match Racing
A match race consists
of two identical boats racing against each other. With effective boat handling
and prudent use of wind and currents, a trailing boat can escape the grasp of
the leader and pass. The leader uses blocking techniques to hold the other
boat back. This one-on-one duel is a game of strategy and tactics. There is
only one winner.
The racing starts on
the start/finish line, an imaginary line between a committee boat and a flag
with the “top” of the course upwind. The boats will enter the starting area
by passing through the start/finish line sailing downwind, then come together
below the line into the “dial-up” which means both boats are bow-to-wind with
the sails flogging. This is usually where the point of advantage begins.
When the race
committee fires the start signal, the boats will sail upwind to the first
floating mark, completing numerous “tacks” or turns to maintain or establish
an advantage over the other boat. Once at the windward mark, the boats will
set their spinnakers (large beetle wing-shaped sails) and sail downwind to the
“leeward” or downwind mark which is just above the start/finish line.
There the boats will
pull down their spinnakers, re-hoist their headsails and sail back up to the
windward mark. Depending on the course set by the race committee the boats
will once again round the windward mark and either go back around the leeward
mark, or finish under spinnaker at the start/finish line.
About The Mayor’s
Cup
The Mayor’s Cup was
conceived in 2004 as an event for the annual Sea Festival in Long Beach,
California. Fore many years Long Beach Yacht Club has wanted to host an
all-female match racing event much like the Congressional Cup. The Sea
Festival presented and opportunity to bring this idea to fruition and a
partnership was formed between the city of Long Beach and Long Beach Yacht
Club.
Both sides presented
the idea to Mayor Beverly O'Neill who loved the idea of an all-female match
race and it was placed on the calendar as an annual addition to the six
week-long festival.
The winner of the
Mayor’s Cup will qualify to race in the Ficker Cup. The winner of the Ficker
Cup represents Long Beach Yacht Club in the Congressional Cup, one of the most
prestigious match race events in the world.
Note
to Editors:
Media wishing to
attend the visit with skippers to St. Mary Medical center on July 13 are
requested to register with Kathleen O'Guin, in the Public Relations department
for St. Mary at 562/491-4838. Photos and video will be allowed pending
patient consent.
On race days, press
releases and low resolution photographs will be distributed. High resolution
photographs will be available upon request. To be added to the distribution
list, please contact Sean Downey below.
Contacts:
City of Long Beach
Kathy Parsons
Public Information
Officer
Kathy_Parsons@longbeach.gov
Mayor’s Cup Media
Sean Downey
Blast Reach Communications LLC
sean@blastreach.com
714/296-9955 mobile
