San Rafael’s Liz Baylis became the first undefeated and first two-time winner Saturday in the 2008 Mayor’s Cup, a women’s match racing event hosted by the Long Beach Yacht Club since 2000.

 

Eight skippers representing the United States, New Zealand, Brazil and Sweden sailed the ISAF Grade 2 race in identical Catalina 37s owned by the Long Beach Yacht Club Sailing Foundation, under sunny skies and a consistent breeze of 10-12 knots.

 

Baylis dominated the three days of double round-robins, semi-finals and finals… a total of 18 races in which rarely was there a chink in their armor.

 

“The crew work was incredible,” Baylis said. “They did everything perfectly. Even when I made a mistake on the leeward mark rounding in the Final, they pulled me out of it and we came back. Their performance gives me confidence.” Liz’s crew were: Pease Glaser, tactician; Molly Carapiet, main trimmer; Karina Shelton, trimmer; Shala Lawrence, trimmer/mast; Sue Service, pit; Suzy Leech, bow.

Sandy Hayes of Massachusetts secured second in the event and made a valiant effort to dethrone Baylis. “We knew once we got into the finals we had to throw Liz off her game,” Hayes said. “Everyone gave it their best, but we fell short.” Third was Samantha Osborne from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

 

For more on the Mayor’s Cup, see www.mayorscuplongbeach.com. For more on women’s match racing, see www.wimra.org.

Liz prefers the J/22 here and Elliott 9s down under to the heavier Catalina 37s as match racing boats. She likes the Ultimate 20s as well, but thinks asymmetricals are not as well suited for match racing. She’ll be off to Sweden later this month to match race on DS 37s, a Danish design. Unfortunately that means she’ll miss this year’s Pacific Cup, which her Antrim 27 E.T. won last time. E.T. will sail with Liz’s husband Todd Hedin skippering, and Tony English and Buzz Blackett crewing.

“About a week ago, the Pacific Cup Race Committee made transponder transmitters a requirement of the race,” reports Tony English. “Before then, they were optional, and E.T. had elected NOT to carry the extra weight. Now that it is a requirement, and there is a tracking web site, I thought I would send you the link: www.FIStracking.com. This will allow you to know more about our position, and that of our competition, than we do.”

The Pacific Cup starts are spread out over Monday through Saturday this week. We’ll bring you reports from E.T. and other competitors as the race progresses and finishers arrive in Kaneohe Bay on Oahu. To get complete background information and follow the Pac Cup day by day, see www.pacificup.org.