Santa Maria

Earlier in the year, the organizers of the Santa Maria Cup, an all-women's match-racing regatta, wanted to move the event from Baltimore's Inner Harbor to Annapolis.Trouble was, racing judges, event volunteers and sponsors were perfectly pleased with the way the regatta had been run the past two years and had no desire to move."So, we are back," said Susan D. Taylor, chairman of the regatta. "And there are good reasons for that -- we sail where people can see us, there are good winds in the Inner Harbor and the facilities at HarborView are first-rate."

JANUARY1 -- In the White House, George Bush, during a high-level discussion of possible U.S. responses to a strike by cork harvesters in Portugal, glances out the Oval Office window and notices that the darned U.S. economy is still in trouble. He vows to write a stern note to his economic advisers, Wayne and Garth. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton -- a virtual unknown on the national scene, despite the fact that he has been governor of Arkansas since he was 17 -- arrives in New Hampshire with a truck containing 957 separate eight-point policies.

It took Dawn Riley a little time to adjust to sailing a 22-foot keelboat after months of training in the 75-foot International America's Cup Class, but during four days of racing in the Inner Harbor the skipper from Detroit learned quickly enough to win the Santa Maria Cup women's match racing championship.Riley began the 57-race regatta on Thursday by losing two of three races. On Friday, her team won four of its five races, and on Saturday it won two of three to earn a berth in yesterday's final against Nicky Bethwaite of Australia.

After two days and 40 races, three things are clear: Hannah Swett's team will be in the semifinal round today, six other crews still have a shot, and three crews cannot advance beyond the round robin of the Santa Maria Cup being sailed on the Inner Harbor.Swett, of Jamestown, R.I., won four of five races she sailed yesterday and is in first place with a 7-1 record. Even if Swett loses her final match of the round robin today against Dawn Riley of Detroit, Swett will still have the best record among the 10 teams.

Hundreds gathered at the Inner Harbor yesterday and watched with mixed emotions as the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria blew into town on a tour commemorating the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the New World.The ships, replicas of those Columbus first sailed, visited cities in Europe, the Caribbean and southern United States before arriving in Baltimore.Visitors who watched the ships come in had mixed reactions.Maria Norton had been waiting since 9 a.m., although the ships weren't scheduled to arrive until noon.

Replicas of the three ships Christopher Columbus first sailed to the New World were expected to arrive in Baltimore today, two weeks later than originally planned and running short of the money they need to complete their tour.The Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria sailed from Spain last October and have been visiting cities in the Caribbean and southern United States since their arrival in the New World. But the cost of getting the tiny caravels to the West Coast has officials of the sponsoring organization scrambling for funds.

Long after Christopher Columbus sailed from the classroom lessons of most Carroll students, seventh-graders at New Windsor Middle School remained engulfed in books, magazines and videos about the Italian explorer.The students -- 117 of them -- spent several weeks researching and writing individual biographical reports on Columbus and thengrouped together to tackle more in-depth projects relating to his discovery of the New World."I think this was the first time most of them were involved in a project of this size and magnitude," said Alan Powers, a seventh-grade social studies teacher.

J.J. Isler of San Diego, using the guile of a seasoned match racer, won four of five races her team sailed in the Inner Harbor yesterday and won the Santa Maria Cup, the first women's regatta of its type to be held in the United States.But for a brief time yesterday morning, it appeared that Isler's chances of winning the regatta were all wet.Isler entered the final day of racing in the three-day regatta as the No. 3 skipper and was matched against No. 2, Betsy Alison of Newport, R.I., who on Saturday had won the first race in their best-of-three semifinal series.

J. J. Isler, Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, and U.S. Olympic team member Cory Sertl and their respective three-women crews from California and New York tied for the lead after the first day in the Santa Maria Cup championship regatta match race yesterday just outside the Inner Harbor.The second day of round-robin match racing will continue today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with semifinals tomorrow at 10 a.m. and finals at noon.The first-time event, headquartered in the HarborView Yacht Club and Marina and sponsored by Crown Central Petroleum Corporation, has attracted some of the top female sailors.

THE focus of many area sports fans may be on Pimlico Race Course this weekend, but Baltimore Harbor is the site of a watery racing event of national prestige that brings together top female sailors competing in the inaugural Santa Maria Cup.To be sailed tomorrow through Sunday in an area of the harbor easy for shoreside spectators to see, the event is believed by organizers to be the nation's first match regatta for yachtswomen."