Sailors

This year's Annapolis Yacht Club Fall Series, staged over the past three weekends, drew plenty of local and regional interest.Some 100 IMS, J/35, and PHRF A and B sailors were on the course on Saturdays, with similar numbers of PHRF C, MORC, and cruising one-design sailors competing on Sundays.IMS numbers continue to be light locally, but PHRF A-1 and A- 2 hit 31 and 41 entries, respectively, bringing the PHRF overall fleet numbers for the Saturday racing to 89 entries.AYC traditionally has scored both PHRF and IMS not only in individual class splits, but also as total fleets for Fall Series.

No. 13 host Mount de Sales (8-0, 4-0) remembered the last time No. 9 Garrison Forest (3-2, 2-1) paid it a visit.The Grizzlies handed the Sailors an 11-4 loss and knocked them out of the quarterfinals of the Association of Independent Schools West Division Tournament.Mount de Sales returned the favor yesterday by taking an early 2-0 lead, holding off an early second-half rally and riding out a 5-2 win."I think that loss was on some of the players' minds," said Sailors head coach Bill Held.

The Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association's overwhelming success with last year's series of technical seminars has generated a second season.The four-week series, which begins next weekend in the Naval Academy's Rickover and Michelson halls, will feature some of the region's top sailing authorities."

Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association high-point standings for PHRF sailors, by far the largest contingent of the Handicap Division, which also includes IMS, MORC and Multihull competitors, have been finalized.Like other high-point standings, the PHRF scores represent an overview of each qualifying sailor's season of racing, with certain minimum requirements, such as the completion of at least five races and membership in CBYRA, PHRF of the Chesapeake and a CBYRA-member yacht club.Like other divisional scoring systems, in PHRF the final score is determined by dividing the actual number of points earned for starting, finishing and beating other starters, by the number of points it would have been possible to earn had a competitor won every race he or she started, plus 30.Bonus points for long-distance races, ranging from five for races of 20 to 49.9 miles, to 16 for races over 200 miles, but not exceeding a total of 30, also are included in the formula, and up to three races, one for every six completed, can be dropped as a worst-race throwout in the final calculation.

The sailors of the Gorch Fock, a German training vessel docked at the Inner Harbor since Aug. 25, are rich with tales about America -- but they're a bit poorer in the pocketbook."

On a dark and stormy Friday, six hardy sailors gathered in Galesville to race tiny, one-sail dinghies called Lasers. The skippers waited out a downpour and then, as the clouds parted around 6 p.m., rigged their boats and headed out. Laser sailing isn't for the smart set. The coat-and-tie yacht club types buy bigger, more expensive boats. And it's not really for families - the tiny cockpit fits only one person. "The Laser is a sailor's sailboat," said Carl Berninger, 72, the oldest member of the Galesville fleet.

WASHINGTON -- Crime in the Navy doesn't pay, but now, according to senior commanders, neither does the punishment.The Navy, under pressure to find new budget cuts, will begin shutting down its boot camps for delinquent sailors this month because commanders say they can no longer justify the $4.3 million annual expense of running and staffing the facilities.The leaner, meaner post-Cold War Navy would rather expel problem sailors than rehabilitate them, a knowledgeable Navy official explained yesterday.

WASHINGTON -- In a scathing new book about misbehavior in the Navy, Adm. Charles R. Larson, the superintendent of the Naval Academy, is accused of having tried to cover up the rape of a U.S. female sailor by Soviet sailors in San Diego in 1990, a charge the admiral vociferously denies."

HAIFA, Israel -- The woman who called herself Nomi was a rainbow in a dim bar. She had an explosion of teased yellow hair, tears drawn in black mascara, full red lips, and gold earrings that seemed as big as the ship's anchors of the Navy sailors she serves."

Mount de Sales coach Bill Held said the key to beating North Harford would be holding them below 58 points. He was at least half right.Held's Sailors also needed some clutch free-throw shooting to edge North Harford, 50-48, in a Mistletoe Division game at the 7th Annual Holly & Hoops Women's Basketball Tournament at Essex Community College yesterday.In a physical game with 56 free throws, Katy Santry and Jayne Hammen hit two each in the final 1:45 to help the Sailors hold off a late North Harford rally.