Mayor’s Cup crews reach out to community

by Sean Downey on 14 Jul 2005 One day before racing was planned to commence, the Mayor’s Cup crews visited presenting sponsor St. Mary Medical Center to show their support.

Five of the races participants toured St. Mary Medical Center’s Pediatric and Rehabilitation wings.

In keeping with the connection between St. Mary and the Mayor’s Cup, two of the Center’s staff will be racing with skipper Sandy Hayes: Sandy Miller, Director of Rehabilitation Services will be racing on Friday and Colleen Coonan, Nursing Director for Medical/Surgical will be racing Thursday and Saturday.

After the visit to St. Mary Medical Center, the crews met at Gladstone’s Restaurant for a reception and dinner with the Mayor and other officials from the city of Long Beach and organizers of the Sea Festival. The skippers were announced and introduced their respect crews to the audience.

Mayor Beverly O’Neill commented, 'This event is very exciting. Not only because it is the Mayor’s Cup, but because the women that are participating are so excited about it. We look forward to the next few days of sailing in Long Beach by having these women skippers and these crews taking the same route as the Congressional Cup takes so it’s just another way to show how important sailing is to Long Beach. I’m so happy to have them here and happy that the I’m a woman mayor to give them their trophy'

Gladstone’s Restaurant is located at the newly created Pike at Rainbow Harbor in downtown Long Beach. Its owner, John Sangmeister is a long time sailor himself. He read about the event in the local newspapers and wanted to get involved. 'Drew Satariano is a long time friend. I called him and told him to get a hold of me if they needed anything, and they did.'

Satariano is a former Commodore for Long Beach Yacht Club and cofounder of the Mayor’s Cup.

The six teams with a total of forty-two competitors will take to the waters off of the Belmont Veteran’s Memorial Pier in Long Beach on Thursday, July 14. The event will be held in a double round robin style culminating in a best of three final on Saturday, July 16.


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.