Sailing Team

It's been a long time coming, but last week the U.S. Naval Academy'sIntercollegiate Sailing Team scored an impressive coup.Team members conquered all of the other top collegiate dinghy teams in the country and won the National Intercollegiate Championships at Tulane University in New Orleans. It was the first time in the event's history that Navy swept all three events of the regatta.Racing was in 420s out of Southern Yacht Club on Lake Pontchartrain.First was the Women's Nationals, which was won by Navy when A Division skipper Susie Minton, with Julie Kohl as her crew, topped out that division for the second year in a row. An excellent performance by B skipper Cynthia Williams clinched the women's title.

The bay breeze whips at the sails. Nearby, a small group of government workers chats amicably. The college students look over their fleet and the gray skies beyond. They want to get in one more practice before the Naval Academy Mids get on the water. It's a scene right out of Annapolis. Only this is Essex. As the Eastern Baltimore County area continues to shed its rusty image, it has become home to waterfront estates and marinas filled with yachts. Now, Essex is hosting its first collegiate regatta -- a signal to the sailing world that it might have overlooked a spot.

The annual intercollegiate sailing season came to a close last week with the end of a 10-day series at the College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C., including the ICYRA Women's Nationals, the ICYRA Dinghy Nationals and the ICYRA Team Racing Nationals.When the series ended, the Naval Academy's Intercollegiate Sailing Team was honored with the prestigious Fowle Trophy, awarded to the team displaying the depth, consistency and versatility to be the top overall performer through a weighted-scoring, five-regatta series, including the three events at Charleston as well as the ICYRA Single-handed and Sloop Nationals earlier in the year.

THE WATER is warming up, everyone is on vacation, the air is still - and did we mention it is getting hot? But stuffy weather need not precipitate a full retreat to an air-conditioned cube. We've pulled together a few water-related events that don't count on a strong breeze. Listen to tunes at City Dock on Wednesdays at noon. Today's concert features Susquehanna River Valley crooner Don Shappelle. Take lunch and sun block. On July 6, the band will be Them Eastport Oyster Boys, playing songs such as "Good Hat, Good Dog, Good Boat" and "Back Creek Crab."

The final day of Severn Sailing Association's Laser Atlantic Coast Championship Regatta ended with a whimper off Annapolis yesterday afternoon.The only race that was attempted was abandoned in the face of an extremely light and dying wind, a strong flood tidal current, and a 20- to 25-degree wind shift that forced most of the fleet eastward into the mouth of the Severn River instead of south toward the first weather mark.In the absence of results yesterday, the regatta consisted only of Saturday's two races, falling one race short of the number required for an officially sanctioned championship.

Danielle Brennan, a sophomore at St. Mary's College of Maryland, has won the Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year award, becoming the youngest person and only college student to win the award in its 34-year history.Brennan, 19, beat out several professionals for the award. She is a member of the St. Mary's sailing team that has been top-ranked in the nation and won two national titles in 1994. Her individual accomplishments in the past year include: first in the U.S. Women's National Singlehanded Championships, first in the Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association (ICYRA)

Wednesday's designation of Annapolitan Jim Brady and Courtnay Becker of Rye, N.Y., as the 1990 Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the year, gave U.S. Olympic sailing an important boost.Brady is a J/24 and J/22 World Champion and rising star on the World Match Racing circuit. He competes with Texan Doug Kern as part of Maine skipper Kevin Mahaney's No. 1-ranked U.S. Soling team, which also was named 1990's Olympic Yachting Male Athletes of the Year.Becker is the nation's top-ranked competitor in the single-handedwomen's Europe Dinghy class as well as a member of the Women's Lechner Sailboard squad on the U.S. Olympic Sailing Team.

The Midshipmen, sailing coaches, officers and personnel at the NavalAcademy Sailing Squadron enjoyed one of their winningest months in October.The season's race results place them in the top ranks of the Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association schools. A national ranking from Sailing World is anticipated soon.The Naval Academy's Varsity Offshore team performed well also andtook several prize trophies within the CBYRA.On Oct. 5-6, Navy won the Danmark trophy at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy's 50th Danmark Regatta.

The bay breeze whips at the sails. Nearby, a small group of government workers chats amicably. The college students look over their fleet and the gray skies beyond. They want to get in one more practice before the Naval Academy Mids get on the water. It's a scene right out of Annapolis. Only this is Essex. As the Eastern Baltimore County area continues to shed its rusty image, it has become home to waterfront estates and marinas filled with yachts. Now, Essex is hosting its first collegiate regatta -- a signal to the sailing world that it might have overlooked a spot.

ST. MARY'S CITY -- The day is crisp, the leaves turning gorgeous shades of red and gold and the big team on campus is preparing to meet its archrival this weekend.But the familiar sounds are missing. No clacking pads, no loud pops from a hard tackles, no "Hut! Hut! Hut!" from a quarterback.That's because this is St. Mary's College, and the big team on this campus along the St. Mary's River is the sailing team.On most afternoons, the sounds are those of the gentle lapping of water against the dock, the flapping of sails as they're hoisted and the voice of coach Adam Werblow as he directs his team in its afternoon practices.

While most students are sitting in class and studying for exams this week, two Key School students will be taking a step toward competing in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Jimmy Praley and Jimmy Attridge, both juniors for the Obezags' sailing team, will pilot a boat in the Olympic Class Regatta race tomorrow in Miami. Praley and Attridge, who will be the youngest sailors in the international 470 class, will compete against a couple of dozen boats for the right to participate in the U.S. Olympic trials next year.

ST. MARY'S CITY -- The day is crisp, the leaves turning gorgeous shades of red and gold and the big team on campus is preparing to meet its archrival this weekend.But the familiar sounds are missing. No clacking pads, no loud pops from a hard tackles, no "Hut! Hut! Hut!" from a quarterback.That's because this is St. Mary's College, and the big team on this campus along the St. Mary's River is the sailing team.On most afternoons, the sounds are those of the gentle lapping of water against the dock, the flapping of sails as they're hoisted and the voice of coach Adam Werblow as he directs his team in its afternoon practices.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Kiny Parade was lying on the mesh netting of her berth, coughing uncontrollably and vomiting. Her bronchitis was threatening to turn to pneumonia, and the antibiotics were making her stomach hurt. Although she needed rest and a warm drink, the boat was pitching too violently for sleep and there was not enough gas on board to produce but one cup of tea for her every 24 hours.In a feverish daze, she thought only a few days had passed like this. Her shipmates later told her it was almost a week.

St. Mary's City -- Along shorelines from which colonial ships once put out for England with cargoes of tobacco and corn, crews from St. Mary's College now sail in search of national championships and individual awards -- and they are finding them regularly.In the past three years, 21 members of St. Mary's sailing teams have been named All-America, including some who had not raced boats before enrolling at the college.Academically, St. Mary's College is the only public honors college in the state, mandated to provide an affordable, accessible liberal arts education on par with top private schools.

Danielle Brennan, a sophomore at St. Mary's College of Maryland, has won the Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year award, becoming the youngest person and only college student to win the award in its 34-year history.Brennan, 19, beat out several professionals for the award. She is a member of the St. Mary's sailing team that has been top-ranked in the nation and won two national titles in 1994. Her individual accomplishments in the past year include: first in the U.S. Women's National Singlehanded Championships, first in the Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association (ICYRA)

SAN DIEGO -- Two years ago, Susan Hemond-Dent was making her way across Madagascar -- sky diving, scaling cliffs, hiking deserts, canoeing whitewater and kayaking the ocean.Sounds like a great outdoors vacation, right? Wrong.Hemond-Dent, the 35-year-old daughter of Orioles general manager Roland Hemond, and four other members of a team named American Pride were racing across Madagascar in the Raid Gauloises, the ultimate endurance survival race."I did the 1992 race in Oman, too," said Hemond-Dent, a reserve sewerman on the all-woman America's Cup boat, America3.

THE WATER is warming up, everyone is on vacation, the air is still - and did we mention it is getting hot? But stuffy weather need not precipitate a full retreat to an air-conditioned cube. We've pulled together a few water-related events that don't count on a strong breeze. Listen to tunes at City Dock on Wednesdays at noon. Today's concert features Susquehanna River Valley crooner Don Shappelle. Take lunch and sun block. On July 6, the band will be Them Eastport Oyster Boys, playing songs such as "Good Hat, Good Dog, Good Boat" and "Back Creek Crab."

After a seven-race, four-day series for the Soling Nationals last week in Punta Gorda, Fla., the still-No. 1 U.S. team of Kevin Mahaney, Doug Kern, and Annapolitan Jim Brady handily topped a fleet of 29 topU.S. and Canadian teams."Typically, the conditions were about 8 to 10, not terribly windy," Brady said. "We never even used our heavy-air jib the whole regatta. The morning races were typically lighter,and by the afternoon you'd have more like 10 knots of breeze as the sea breeze would take over."

St. Mary's College in Southern Maryland went to a national sailing championship earlier this month and brought home its first national athletic title from the Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association Sloop Nationals.The team from the college in St. Mary's City qualified for the competition by winning the Mid-Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association championships last month.Sailing for St. Mary's were All-America Tim Healy of Niantic, Conn., Bob Oberg of Westmont. N.J., and Peter S. Thompson of Annapolis.

The West River Sailing Club in Galesville had a definit pre-Olympic look last weekend.Races were held for 32 teams for the 470 National Championships, 15 contenders in the Europe Dinghy East Coasts and six in the Finn Class Chesapeake Regatta.James Appel, a 470 sailor and Naval Academy sailing coach, was guaranteed the third-ranked slot on the U.S. Sailing Team with his seventh-place finish at West River. Appel and crew member Lt. Jamie Fontanella, a Navy graduate, will compete in the 470 Worlds this summer in France.