Santa Maria

On two occasions during the preliminary series of the Santa Maria Cup Women's Match Racing Championships, Melinda Berge made up large margins to win.Yesterday, in the final series, the Baltimore sailor twice had chances to do so again.At the top of the second leg to windward in the first race of the finals, Berge and Karen Johnson of Vancouver, British Columbia, had their boats dead into the wind, each waiting for the other to err and give her opponent a path to the mark and the lead entering the last leg of the race.

The semifinal round of the Santa Maria Cup Women's Match Racing Championship got under way in light winds and lighter rain yesterday, and after two sets of races the four finalists are even.The balance of the best-of-five semifinals and the championship match will be sailed today."Everything has gone well this week," said regatta executive director Scott Steele. "We have four teams in the finals who have been [in the Santa Maria Cup] at least once before."They all have the experience and it shows in the racing.

For Race 5 of the Santa Maria Cup Women's Match Racing Championships on the Inner Harbor yesterday, race officials added a third lap to the windward-leeward course.The change enabled Melinda Berge of Baltimore to turn an almost certain loss into a victory and equal Bermuda's Paula Lewin with a 5-1 record at the end of the second day of racing.Judy Lugar of Canada, sailing against Berge in the fifth set of races, failed to note the course change and sailed beyond the leeward mark to the finish line before realizing her mistake.

The Santa Maria Cup Women's Match Racing Championship returns to the Inner Harbor this week, with a 10-boat field but without some of the big-name women sailors who have raced in this event since 1991.The race -- in its fourth year -- will lose some of the better-known women to preparations for the America's Cup, which for the first time includes an all-women challenge to be the defender.Julia Trotman, Dawn Riley and Hannah Swett are among the missing. Riley and Swett are on Bill Koch's America3 team in San Diego where the America's Cup will be sailed next year.

Team Nippon defeated the Santa Maria Cup Challenge, 2-0, yesterday in the best-of-three series to determine third place in the Columbus Cup team racing regatta sailed off Fort McHenry.Team Chesapeake and the PACT '95 team will sail in a best-of-five series to determine the Cup champion starting at 11 a.m. today off Fort McHenry.Earlier in the week, PACT '95 was 6-0 in the round-robin portion of the regatta sailed in Annapolis. Team Chesapeake was 4-2, with both losses coming against PACT '95.Spectators should be able to view today's races from Fort McHenry.

Hannah Swett received the "death penalty" during the second race of the Santa Maria Cup championship yesterday -- and not even a reprieve by the regatta judges and endorsed by her opponent could keep her from being eliminated.At the top of the third -- and what should have been the final -- windward leg, Swett and Julia Trotman came to the mark almost dead even, with Swett trying to maintain inside position and force Trotman wide around the mark.The on-the-water judges ruled that Swett had not allowed Trotman clearance and assessed a penalty, which would require Swett to make a 270-degree turn at some point on the final run to the finish line of the windward-leeward course at the Inner Harbor.

Hannah Swett and Paula Lewin sailed three races yesterday, first to determine the semifinal seedings in the Santa Maria Cup women's match-racing regatta, and then to decide one of the two berths in today's final.Swett swept all three, but not before Lewin, sailing in her first match racing regatta, had a chance to sail away with a victory in the second semifinal race -- and watched the opportunity slip away.At the top mark on the first leg, after Swett had won the first match of their best-of-three semifinal, Lewin and her crew from M.I.T.

After eight rounds in the Santa Maria Cup sailing regatta, three semifinalists have been decided and the fourth hangs in the balance of a match between Dawn Riley and Mary Brigden Snow today in the last flight of round-robin races.Julia Trotman of Syosset, N.Y., Hannah Swett of Jamestown, R.I., and Paula Lewin of Bermuda clinched semifinal spots after each won at least two races yesterday.Trotman, who leads the regatta with a 7-1 record, won all three of her matches yesterday, including a close match with Swett in the third flight of the day.Swett and Lewin, tied for second with 6-2 records, are matched today.

For Baltimore J-22 sailor Melinda Berge, there were good and bad moments yesterday during the first four rounds of the Santa Maria Cup sailed on the Inner Harbor off Canton.Two of the good moments were victories against Lynda Corrado of California and Paula Lewin of Bermuda. Two of the bad were losses to Karen Johnson of Canada and Julia Trotman of New York."Julia Trotman gave us a severe lesson on how to tack away and give you a tacking duel upwind," Berge said. "We were fortunately able to put that lesson to good use in the last race, which we won."

A year ago, Dawn Riley just had completed 18 months o intensive sailing with Bill Koch's victorious America3 syndicate in the America's Cup when she won the Santa Maria Cup at the Inner Harbor.In the months since winning the only women's match racing regatta in the United States, Riley has been in among the big guns of yachting, a woman skipper in an area of the sport dominated by men.Today, Riley again will take the helm of a 22-foot sloop in the regatta that launched her on the same race courses with Russell Coutts, Peter Isler, Ed Baird, Paul Cayard and Chris Dickson.