Week of July 18-24, 2011

July 25, 2011

Christine Neville Wins National Title

Christine Neville of Oakland came from behind on Sunday to win the women's Laser Radial fleet at the 2011 U.S. Singlehanded Championship hosted by the Columbia Gorge Racing Association at Cascade Locks, OR, July 21-24.

The women's fleet managed just one race on Sunday. Neville's fifth place finish was good enough to surpass Hanne Weaver of Gig Harbor, WA, for the lead. Weaver dropped to third and Sky Adams of Santa Barbara YC slipped into second. "This is pretty surprising and really exciting," said Christine. "It's an honor because this Championship was so competitive. I had good speed upwind, especially in the first day. It was important not to fall back, because there were no throwouts. I was able to keep the boat flat when it was windy and take the lead before the downwind shift, which was going against the current."

For more, see http://home.ussailing.org.

Venezia Challenge Is 'Excused'

And then there were eight. Venezia Challenge, the team that sails for Club Canottieri Roggero di Lauria, has been "unable to meet the requirements to continue in both the America’s Cup World Series and the 34th America’s Cup," according to the America's Cup website.

Iain Murray, the America’s Cup Regatta Director and Chief Executive of America’s Cup Management Limited advised, “Following discussions and attempts to resolve in a timely way, there was an agreement to meet certain obligations by this weekend and the deadline passed.” So, the Italian team has been excused from further participation, reducing the number of challengers to seven.

Awesome Video Dude

Photographer Sergei Zavarin spent the last five days shooting guns for the St. Francis YC race committee, which was running the Junior, Youth & Masters Windsurfing World Championships. While Serge was shooting a firearm, his video cameras were shooting the action. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxsHD2Ha3ak for the video and www.techno293worldchampionship.org for more info.

Windsurfer Rescued After Drifting All Night

In unrelated windsurfing news, Cathy Canton, 62, of Los Altos, spent the night on her board, drifting with the tides in the South Bay near the San Mateo Bridge, after her rig broke and the batteries in her strobe light and VHF radio failed. She had gone out around 1700 hours on Monday evening, telling her husband she would only be out for half an hour. When she had not returned by nearly 1900, her husband called the Coast Guard, who searched for her by water and air. She was spotted and rescued by helicopter at 0600 on Tuesday. Though tired and dehydrated, she was otherwise okay, thanks to her wetsuit and the warmer water temperatures in the South Bay. The Mercury-News has a good story.