Race Week

Many of the area's most competitive sailors have headed -- or are about to head -- south to warmer waters for winter competition.They will compete in several one-design class associations' midwinter championships, as well as the always popular Yachting Key West Race Week.In its traditional position early in the lineup was the 1993 J/24 Midwinter Championship, with the Coral Reef Yacht Club in Coral Gables, Fla., as host, last week.This year's fleet of 73 competitors came from across the United States and also included teams from Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece and Mexico.

The Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association conducted its Region II and III awards presentation luncheon Saturday at the Gibson Island Club.There, 1990 High Point trophy winners in dozens of Handicap, Cruising One-Design and One-Design classes picked up their awards.Presentations also were made to perpetual trophy winners from last September's CBYRA/Annapolis Race Week, as well as the association'stop honorees in a variety of prestigious overall categories.The 1990 Labrot Trophy is awarded to the top handicap division competitor.

Dennis, the vagabond hurricane that eventually swept across Maryland as a tropical depression last weekend, apparently had no adverse impact on fishing waters across the state, although the storm's northeast winds reshaped portions of the Atlantic coastline."

Despite a dying breeze on the 10-mile windward-leeward course set between Hart-Miller and Pooles islands on the Chesapeake yesterday, all but one of the 79 starters in the first of the three races of Northern Bay Race Week got over the finish line in good order."

known locally for his "Be Current" tidal-current prediction tables and charts, and the handy CBYRA-designated government mark matrices with distance and bearing between them -- has announced his new 1992 series.It has some unique new twists that make the familiar, good product even better.New this year is the early season Annapolis-area Region III format, which provides the useful information in two volumes.First, itcovers all events from the Naval Academy Sailing Squadron's Spring Race on April 25 to the Miles River Yacht Club's Annapolis-to-Miles River and Maryland Capital Yacht Club Miles River Race Back on May 23-24.

Don't expect Maryland thoroughbred tracks to cut back from a five- to four-day live race week.Laurel/Pimlico operator Joe De Francis addresses the board of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association tonight to explain why he wants to Laurel notebookexperiment later this summer with the four-day race week.But "there's no sentiment among horsemen for a change," said MTHA president Richard Hoffberger. "If it comes up to a vote, it will not pass."Horsemen must consent to the four-day week for it to be instituted by management.

The time is now to register for the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association's annual Performance Racing Seminar, set for Feb. 26 and 27.The event always fills up fast, and space in the Humanities Building at Anne Arundel Community College is limited, so this year, especially when guest speakers include John Kolius and Dave Flynn, reserving early can make the difference between disappointment and better race results in the spring.Kolius, one of the world's premier racers, holds titles in everything from dinghies to maxis, including a silver medal in Solings in the 1976 Olympics.

Charlie Kimball was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2007, news that upended his personal and professional life. But the 27-year-old English-born, California-raised open-wheel racing veteran didn't just work to get his career back on track, he's worked to inspire others. For his efforts, Kimball recently earned a Jefferson Award, a national public service award co-founded in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, U.S. Senator Robert Taft Jr. and Sam Beard. In bestowing the honor, spokespeople for the award said, "Since his diagnosis, Kimball has been a hero to the diabetes community, regularly making appearances and spreading awareness of diabetes.

As Orb charged to the wire at Churchill Downs last weekend, he established his clear superiority to the other 18 thoroughbreds on horse racing's biggest stage, the Kentucky Derby. But compared to Derby champions of the past, Orb's time is less impressive - his 2:02.89 run doesn't rank among the top 10 in the race's history. It is slower than the times of many winners from the 1950s and 1960s, and well behind Secretariat's 1973 record. Blame the muddy track? Fair enough, but none of the past decade's Derby winners recorded a top 10 time either.

Only five weeks remain before the November general election, but Reginald G. Avery's campaign for Howard County Council is just getting started. The 56-year-old Oakland Mills resident became a Republican county council candidate Monday after an earlier candidate nominated in the primary officially withdrew. Avery admitted his chances of unseating incumbent Democrat Calvin Ball in East Columbia's District 2 election are slim at best, but he said "I believe residents should have a choice.