In a cruel twist of circumstances for the 35 teams competing in US SAILING's Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship, today's weather was a complete 180 from Wednesday's severe storms and 40-plus knot wind. With less than five knots of wind on Lake Ontario, and even less-stable conditions forecast for the rest of the day, the Rochester Yacht Club race committee cautiously sent the fleet out to the race course. But, after spending time reviewing the situation and not much hope for consistently suitable breeze, the RC made the call to end the waiting at 12:00.
"There wasn't much to do out there other than waiting for something to happen," said Dominique Provoyeur (Cape Town, South Africa), currently in third place overall, about the wait on the water. "It didn't look like there would be much breeze. We were looking at the clouds moving in different directions, so there was wind high and wind low, which means the breeze was fighting. We just tried to stay focused and relaxed; it's a pity nothing happened, but we are looking forward to tomorrow."
Like Provoyeur, approximately half of the teams competing here are from out of town, with one team who flew in from Hawaii, and seven teams traveling from outside the country. The Dutch team, lead by skipper Marieke Poulie (Maarssen, N.A.), had a stressful situation this morning with crew member Petronella de Jong suffering from vertigo this morning and almost had to make a last-minute crew substitution. "She (Petronella) needs a lot of balance to be on the bow," said Poulie. "We would have swapped her position in the jibing, but in the end we decided we didn't need to. When we left the dock we were hopeful to get in some racing, and we knew the forecast was light. We are disappointed we didn't get any sailing in, since we flew here from Europe." Poulie and her team are in tenth overall.
Three races were completed yesterday with US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics member and US Olympic Gold Medalist Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.) currently in the overall lead, followed by Jennifer Provan's Sunrise team from Toronto, Ontario, Canada in second.
Racing will continue tomorrow for the series final day, followed by the Rolex Gala and Awards Ceremony where the winning team will be awarded the Bengt Julin Trophy and a Rolex timepiece will be awarded to the winning skipper.
Rolex Watch U.S.A. is the title sponsor with national sponsorship from Atlantis, Dry Creek Vineyard, Kattack and PredictWind. Other sponsors to date include: Shumway Marine, Home Care of Rochester, Triliant Jewelers, Monroe County Sports Commission, Lake Beverage, West Marine and North Sails. The Rolex IWKC is a US SAILING Championship and hosted by the Rochester Yacht Club.
Full results are online.
For more information, visit the event website www.riwkc.com where fans around the world can go to view photos from official event photographer Dan Nerney, read the daily reports, link to Twitter (twitter/ussailing) and follow racing live with real-time GPS tracking by Kattack. Compliments of Rolex, daily highlights videos produced by T2P.tv will be uploaded each evening (after 9pm eastern) to both www.t2p.tv and http://www.ussailing.org/video/fliqz/index.html.
About the Rolex IWKC: Inaugurated in 1985 at the instigation of the US SAILING's Women's Championship Committee, the Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship quickly became the premier women's sailing event in the U.S. and worldwide. Held biennially, the event provides women keelboat and offshore sailors high-quality racing and an opportunity to compete with top national and international sailors. Rolex Watch U.S.A. has sponsored the regatta since its inception. The event is part of US SAILING's Championships calendar.
The Rolex IWKC joins other prestigious Rolex-sponsored events including the Rolex Miami OCR, Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Rolex Fastnet Race, Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, Block Island Race Week presented by Rolex, the Rolex Big Boat Series and the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. For more information visit www.regattanews.com, the online press portal for Rolex yachting events.
About the Rochester Yacht Club: Incorporated in 1877, the Rochester Yacht Club celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2002 and is still going strong. The first regatta was held in 1877 with eight sail boats competing and most recently it hosted 102 boats at the J/22 World Championship. Its purpose is to provide and encourage interests and instruction in areas of yachts and yachting, seamanship, racing and traditions of yachting. By car, RYC is seven miles from the heart of Rochester, Monroe County, New York, and it is located on the south shore of Lake Ontario and accessible from the Genesee River.
About US SAILING: The United States Sailing Association (US SAILING) is the national governing body for sailing. Founded in 1897 and headquartered in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, the organization provides leadership for the sport of sailing in the United States. US SAILING offers training and education programs for instructors and race officials, supports a wide range of sailing organizations and communities, issues offshore rating certificates, and provides administration and oversight of competitive sailing across the country, including National Championships and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Teams. For more information, please visit www.ussailing.org.
