Sailing

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

Even as an experienced sailor, Peter McChesney said that racing the J/70 gives him a different kind of thrill. The 223/4-foot boat, the newest design of Rhode Island-based J/Boats, which began building its line in the late 1970s, will be the most popular entry in the prestigious Annapolis National Offshore One-Design (NOOD) Regatta Series, which will be held Friday through next Sunday. The third leg of the six-race series is expected to attract an estimated 1,000 sailors, with the top prize being a trip to the Top-Sider NOOD Regatta Championship in the British Virgin Islands in November.

Taking refuge in Harborplace's Light Street Pavilion from a sudden downpour yesterday evening, Mayor Martin O'Malley and others officially welcomed the Volvo Ocean Race to Baltimore. A three-piece band led a procession of the eight racing teams around the pavilion's food court before race officials, businessmen and local dignitaries took to the podium before a crowd of onlookers to thank those who had brought the international sailing race to Maryland once again. The rain storm caused some booths at the accompanying Baltimore Waterfront Festival to shut down and visitors to flee.

Don Backe never won the America's Cup or any other world-class sailing event, but he probably had more of an impact on the sport around the Chesapeake Bay than any champion. A segment of the local sailing community - the physically and emotionally disabled as well as those who couldn't afford to sail - are deeply indebted to Backe, who helped found Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB) in 1991, four years after a car accident left him a paraplegic. While mourning his death on April 12 at age 77 after a prolonged illness, those who knew Backe are also celebrating his life - particularly the last 22 years of it. A memorial service is being planned for June in Annapolis, where Backe's nonprofit was based.

Can you suggest the best time to take a South American cruise around Cape Horn, including the smoothest month for sailing? The best times to travel are December, January and February, when you'll likely encounter average daytime highs in the 80s in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile, and lows in the 50s and 60s. But it's only temporary. As your ship makes it way toward the southern tip of South America, be prepared to bundle up. In Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego province in Argentina, the daytime temperature ranges from 42 to 57 degrees.

If you go What: Sailing Into the Season, an evening of nautical holiday music Where: The Annapolis Maritime Museum, 723 Second St., Annapolis When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday Admission: $15 in advance, $20 at the door (includes refreshments) For more information or to make reservations: visit amaritime.org or call 410-295-0104.

Status: Day 6, Leg 6Standings:Boat, Nautical miles to finish1. Toshiba, 4,941.32. EF Language, 4,943.93. Swedish Match, 4,945.34. Silk Cut, 4,948.75. Chessie Racing, 4,961.06. Merit Cup, 4,961.67. Innovation Kvaerner, 5,035.08. BrunelSunergy, 5,078.79. EF Education, 5,232.9 (as of 00: 3: 16 GMT)Boat beat: EF Education, the all-female entry, reported a rigging failure early yesterday morning. The damage occurred while sailing in winds in excess of 45 knots in cold, rough seas in the middle of the night.

Going for the gold can be a costly undertaking for youngathletes -- just ask 28-year-old Harford Countian Max Skelley. He'd like to be the first American to compete in one of the Olympics' newest events, the Laser single-handed boat competition. Max began sailing Lasers about nine years ago and is one of the top Laser sailors in North America.Here's how he got this far: After each Olympics, the U.S. Sailing Committee and the Olympic Committee form a team and schedule competitions in which the team members vie for points.

Last Monday, the defender and challenger committees for America's Cup '95 agreed to make a number of changes in how the Super Bowl of yacht racing is run."We believe this agreement signals the beginning of a new spirit of sportsmanship between the defender and challenger syndicates," America's Cup '95 chairman Frank Hope Jr. said in San Diego. "From a racing perspective, the agreement is designed to make the elimination series a fair test of sailing and design abilities."But the agreement also will eliminate or further regulate some of the side-show activities that have surrounded the Cup for a number of years -- espionage, closed boating compounds, bidding wars for top skippers and crews, etc.The agreement also recommends a centralized location (Commercial Basin)

The "Columbian year" is finally with us. In an impermanent world, Christopher Columbus is one of only a few humans who gets to have a 500th anniversary commemoration.In company with Jesus, Mohammed and Confucius, his deeds have penetrated the globe. Explorers there have been, many of them, but Columbus is a standout. For better or worse, his adventures have changed the entire world.But how much do we know about this New World explorer? The information is piecemeal, gathered from spotty documentary records.

Mary J. May, a homemaker and yachtswoman, died March 31 from bone marrow disease at Heartfields at Easton, an assisted-living community. She was 91. The daughter of a mining engineer and a homemaker, the former Mary Josephine Hundley was born and raised in Chuquicamata, Chile, where she graduated from high school in 1939. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1943 in sociology from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. In 1942, she married Frank B. May, a mechanical and civil engineer, whose work took the couple to Hawaii, Japan, England, Germany, Canada and Belgium, before they settled in Upper Saddle River, N.J. They moved to Queenstown and in 1996 settled at the Londonderry Retirement Community in Easton.

The FBI is investigating a suspicious death aboard a cruise ship that sailed from Baltimore, the agency said Monday. Agents are unsure when the death occurred, but a spokesman said it was reported late Sunday. The deceased was a 62-year-old woman who sailed with her husband on the Royal Caribbean Enchantment of the Seas, the FBI said. Details of what led to the woman's death, or whether she was from Maryland, were being investigated. cwells@baltsun.com twitter.com/cwells

Gov. Martin O'Malley's budget for next year was approved by the Senate after an unusually brief debate Wednesday in a sign of the state's improved fiscal condition. Senators voted 42-5 to pass the $36.8 billion budget and send it to a conference committee with the House. All 35 Democrats and seven Republicans voted in favor of the budget, which comes close to eliminating what was once a nearly $2 billion long-term revenue shortfall. "I can't remember any time the budget was adopted by a larger margin.

A standup comic on a Carnival Pride cruise from Baltimore to the Bahamas recently asked his audience how many were traveling with their kids. Quite a number politely clapped in response. He then asked how many were traveling without their kids. He was answered with whoops and hollers. "There are always fewer of you, but you seem happier," he said. Jokes aside, family cruising is big business. Carnival reports that about 700,000 kids cruise on its ships each year. When I set sail on my first cruise with my 15-year-old and 11-year-old boys last July, I didn't know what to expect.

Seven is a lucky number so far this season for Navy's Jasmine DePompeo, who has tallied as many points in each of the Midshipmen's first two games. The two-time Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year, DePompeo dished out nine assists in wins over Winthrop and Liberty and now holds the school record for career assists with 105. The senior attacker from Sayville, N.Y. came into the season tied with Caitlin Mandrin Hill with 96. She broke the record by dishing out five assists in the season-opening 23-4 win over Winthrop.

A surgeon enters the operating room, offers his hands to a nurse and watches as she helps him into his rubber gloves with a snap. He glances at the patient on the table. A cloth covers the man's torso but for one area. Three trocars - tubes into which the doctor will slide high-tech cables - protrude from the abdomen. The procedure is nothing new for Dr. Adrian Park, a surgeon at Anne Arundel Medical Center who has fixed thousands of abdominal walls, watching his handiwork on a video screen as he replaces herniated tissue with state-of-the-art mesh.

Always want to go for a sail and never had the opportunity?US Sailing offers the chance at the U.S. Sailboat Show with a hands-on demonstration area for adults and children.Newcomers of all ages can have the opportunity to sail Optimist dinghies, Club 420's and Vanguard 15s provided by Vanguard Racing Sailboats.The short test sails will be conducted by instructors certified by US Sailing.Sailmaker ChallengeThe du Pont Sailmaker Challenge will be raced at the U.S. Sailboat Show again this year in Melges 24s. Races, which may be seen from the show docks, will be held Sunday at 10: 30 a.m. and 4 p.m.Top sailmakers compete against one another, and the test is as much in making the best set of sails from du Pont products as it is on-the-water racing.

For many years, the Coast Guard Foundation held charity golf tournaments to raise money to help support enlisted personnel, reservists and their families who suffered a personal or financial loss. Two years ago, the foundation changed course by looking at an event that seemed more in line with its mission and founded the Coast Guard Foundation Cup, an overnight race that served as a feeder distance race for the biennial Bermuda Race from Newport, R.I., to the British territory. The inaugural race attracted 18 boats to Annapolis.

The Maryland Senate gave its answer to the old question of "what do you with a drunken sailor" by voting to bring people who operate sailboats while intoxicated under the same law as power boat operators. Senators voted 37-8 to add sail-only vessels to the list of watercraft it is illegal to operate while under the influence of alcohol. The bill now goes to the House of Delegates. The voted came after Sen. Richard F. Colburn, an Eastern Shore Republican, quizzed floor leader Sen. James Brochin at length about the details of the bill.