Racer

Set your timer. Depending on when you read this, the Volvo Ocean Race yachts will slide into Annapolis in a little over 100 hours. Sailors, sailing wannabes and anyone else who likes big, fast, expensive sailboats will trek into downtown Annapolis for a chance to rub shoulders with around-the-world racers and see yachts that have beaten speed records. "When the boats are here, [Annapolis] is the center of the universe when it comes to sailing," said Jeff Holland, who was in charge of the Annapolis part of the stopover in 2002.

Standing aboard the Volvo Ocean Race yacht movistar yesterday morning, crew member Jonathan Swain looked up at the clear skies, considered the prediction for light winds and said, "It is going to be a beautiful day -- just not for sailing." He was right. Sort of. The perfect spring day drew an estimated 1,000 spectator boats to the Chesapeake Bay. Those aboard eagerly watched the seven Volvo Ocean boats compete in a round-the-buoys race. The wind conditions -- shifty and 10 knots -- were not ideal for the 70-foot yachts, which are designed for windier conditions.

Using a sponge, a squeegee and a piece of fine sandpaper, Andy Walker smoothed the surface of a stabilizing fin, rubbing out the bumps and bruises left on the board as it protruded from under a yacht in the first half of a race around the world. Nearby, Jerry Gale, a boat builder from a rival team in the Volvo Ocean Race, mixed a batch of bluish paste and scraped thin layers of it onto a spare rudder. Like doctors at a nautical hospital, the sailmakers, boat builders and riggers at a Baltimore marina are patching the damage inflicted by the fury of Mother Nature.

SAN FRANCISCO --Scott Speed is a skinny 23-year-old from Manteca, Calif., who, standing at the go-cart track above Sonoma County's Infineon Raceway, looked like a lot of other gearheads. His battered jeans made his worn-out baseball cap look positively pristine. Speed was generous in thanking the people who helped get him where he is. Where he is sitting these days is near enough to the top of the racing world that he can see it without binoculars. As the first American to race full time in Formula One since Michael Andretti in 1993, he can rub elbows with Michael Schumacher, the driver whose estimated annual income of $81 million puts him behind only Tiger Woods in the world of sports.

Nearly 1,200 runners participated Sunday in the 28th annual Clyde's American 10K, one of Howard County's largest running events. The 6.2-mile race was followed by a celebration and brunch at Lake Kittamaqundi.

A week from today, the Volvo Ocean race boats will sail (or drift) up the Chesapeake Bay. The boats will dock at Baltimore's Inner Harbor and -- if this stopover is anything like the others -- the water-weary sailors will be doused with champagne and embraced by family and fans. They'll be completing a 5,000-mile leg from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We spoke with former Volvo ocean racer Chris B. Larson to get a feel for how the sailors -- who've been racing since November -- are doing at this point in the race.

It's hard not to catch the fever when Baltimore's harbor fills up with sleek sails. In a few days, we'll be home to the Volvo Ocean Race, and I'm sure I'll be among those who will have a long look at our Patapsco and the Baltimore Waterfront Festival. Now, 30 years after a similar event, I'll divulge the details of my own personal festival the summer of 1976. In those days I was reporter at the old News American. Then, as now, I never left the city on newspaper assignments and only covered stories as far away as taxicabs or, more likely, a Maryland Transit Administration bus could take me. But that summer, as Baltimore's new and largely unbuilt-up Inner Harbor was showing signs of a terrific rebirth, Baltimore netted a big catch -- the tall ships Danmark, Amerigo Vespucci, Gorch Fock, Esmeralda and Eagle called here after appearing at a huge bicentennial celebration in New York's harbor.

If you compete in serious - or even semiserious - sailboat racing on the Chesapeake Bay, chances are you've been exposed to the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association. The group is in charge of racing and runs regattas, establishes rules and puts on various clinics for Bay racers. We talked to Angelo Buscemi, 40, of Washington, who recently became the group's new president, about its role: What is CBYRA, and who belongs? We're the local governing body for the sport of sailboat racing for the Chesapeake Bay area.

When you look at the Chesapeake Bay on a warm summer day, chances are you will see thousands of tiny white triangles powering sailboats through the waves. Most don't think twice about those triangles - where they came from or how they were designed. But sails on a boat can be as complex as wings on an airplane. The shape of the sail is nuanced, and tiny changes can radically alter the way wind propels the craft. And, although computer-assisted designs have made the industry far more technology-dependent than in the past, the sails are still made (or at least finished)

Deep in the south ocean near Antarctica, the six skippers sailing in the Volvo Ocean Race are worried about giant squid, whales and stray icebergs on the longest and traditionally most treacherous leg of the round-the-world race. It is safe to say they aren't thinking about Baltimore. But in eight weeks, if all goes as planned, these boats will sail up the Chesapeake Bay for a three-week reprieve in Charm City and Annapolis. Ocean Race Chesapeake, a group organizing events while the boats are in Maryland, announced yesterday a schedule of events for the stopover that includes festivals, regattas, awards ceremonies and school tours.