Lord practices slapshot but misses goal on day two

by Sean Downey on 16 Jul 2005 For the second day, light winds forced the skippers to depend more on tactics and boat handling than boat speed to win. After the first day of racing, the crews appeared to have settled into a comfortable groove.

Liz Hjorth of Marina Del Rey, California clawed her way to the top winning all of her races to extend her record to seven wins and one loss. With only two flights to go, she has confirmed herself a spot in the finals.

Not all of the sailing was smooth, however.

The leader coming into day two, Jessica Lords of Sausalito, California, continued her aggressive pre-start regimen. In flight five, she was a windward, overlapped boat, but proceeded to drive down on Louise Bienvenu of New Orleans, Louisiana. It cost her penalty which she was unable to recover from.

Later, in flight six, she was penalized for an extremely loud side-on-side collision with Lovell from New Orleans, Louisiana. Lord and crew, with the penalty looming over them, decided to wait for the penalty turn until the last few meters to the finish line.

The finish was extremely close with only a boat length separating the two. Lovell had a good chance of winning, but a severe twist in the spinnaker cost her dearly as it slowed her down.

In another match of the day, Hayes vs. Treadwell, Treadwell had a penalty for a windward/leeward infraction which needed to be erased. She led the entire race, until the end, when Hayes established overlap and drove Treadwell wide.

When the two boats gibed to head for the finish, Treadwell appeared to have an opportunity when she established a leeward overlap, but experienced technical difficulties which kept her from capitalizing on it.

Sandy Hayes of Newport, Rhode Island has a strong chance at a spot in the finals and she has made it there with the help of two of the staff of presenting sponsor St. Medical Center; on Thursday (and again on Saturday) Colleen Coonan, Director of Medical/Surgical and on Friday, Sandy Miller, Director of Imaging and Physical Therapy. Both are sailors but neither has sailed at this level of competition.

Although it is unlikely that Louise Bienvenu and crew from New Orleans will earn a spot in the finals, they have accomplished their goals. Bienvenu commented, 'We wanted to show that the South had some great match racers and I think we accomplished that. It took us a while to get used to the boats as we are used to sailing much smaller boats when match racing. Even with all of the muscle on the boat, when the wind came up, we could have really used a bit more weight.'

This is not something you would normally hear from a woman. But, with yacht racing, it is a very important point.

Although Hjorth is assured a shot at the championship, the second spot is still up for grabs. The last two flights of the double round robin will decide.

Racing continues on Saturday, July 16 with the final two flights of the double round robin, followed by the best of three final. Spectators are invited to view the racing starting at 12:00pm at the Belmont Veteran’s Memorial Pier.

Standings after four flights:

Place Skipper Wins/Losses
1 Liz Hjorth 7/1
2 Sandy Hayes 5/3
3 Jessica Lord 4/4
3 Katy Lovell 4/4
5 Louise Bienvenu 3/5
6 Samantha Treadwell 1/7


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 St. Mary Medical Center

Affiliated with Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), the largest non-profit health care system in California, St. Mary Medical Center strives to provide state-of-the-art healing to every person they serve. St. Mary is rated in the top 4 percent of all hospitals in the nation by the leading healthcare accreditation agency -- the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).

St. Mary also serves as the regional teaching hospital for the UCLA School of Medicine. Their patients benefit from access to this advanced healthcare in a comfortable setting.

St. Mary's unwavering commitment to 'state-of-the-heart' healing has consistently been recognized by patients and professionals alike. From guiding the miracle of birth to providing dignified assistance to aging adults, St. Mary deeply believes that it shares, cooperatively with God, the responsibility to provide for the whole person -- body, mind and soul -- through all stages of life.


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 wins a seed in the Congressional Cup, one of the most prestigious match race events in the world.