World Race

The Orioles received a fax yesterday from Gavin Brady, helmsman of Chessie Racing, inviting center fielder Brady Anderson to accompany his crew from Baltimore to Annapolis Thursday as part of the ceremonial sail before the continuation of the Whitbread Round the World Race.Anderson, who's on the 15-day disabled list with hand and shoulder injuries, isn't sure if he'll accompany the Orioles to Chicago later this week, but said he would decline the offer either way.Pub Date: 4/26/98

Status: Day 4, Leg 3Standings:Boat ............. Nautical miles to finish1. Toshiba ............... 1,169.12. Chessie Racing ........ 1,173.13. Silk Cut .............. 1,173.74. EF Language ........... 1,176.35. Swedish Match ......... 1,188.56. Merit Cup ............. 1,198.37. Innovation Kvaerner ... 1,198.38. EF Education .......... 1,204.19. BrunelSunergy ......... 1,210.4(as of 18: 04: 16 GMT)Boat beat: First-leg winner EF Language took the lead yesterday in the third leg of the Whitbread Round the World Race from Fremantle to Sydney.

SAO SEBASTIAO, Brazil -- After 39 trying days at sea -- and what surely seemed an eternity to the only female crew in the Whitbread Round the World Race -- the women aboard EF Education arrived in this tropical port to a welcome fit more for a winner than for a last-place finisher.A native celebration, with blue-sequined dancers gyrating to the rhythm of the drums and with local school children screaming in excitement, erupted as the blue and orange 60-foot racing sailboat came into view.

THE VISIT of the Whitbread Round the World Race last year was a great boost for Baltimore and Annapolis. The experience of the annual Bridge Walk looking down at the craft that crossed the world's oceans was unique.So it's welcome that the quadrennial race, now the Volvo Ocean Race Round the World, is coming back in April 2002. How could they pass up the Chesapeake? The greatest crowds and attention to their transcontinental endurance test were here last time.Beyond that, for a region putting itself forward as the best venue for the 2012 Olympic Summer Games, this is proof it is at home hosting an international sporting spectacle.

LONDON -- New sponsor. Same race.That was the message put out by organizers of one of the world's premier sailing events yesterday with the announcement that Volvo will take over The Whitbread Round The World Race.The 1997-98 event will start on Sept. 21 in Southampton, England, and conclude in May 1998.Maryland remains part of the Whitbread lineup. An 870-mile leg from Fort Lauderdale is due to finish in Baltimore, April 22, 1998.The racers will leave Annapolis May 3, 1998 for a 3,390-mile journey to France.

Chessie Racing, the Baltimore-Annapolis entry in the coming Whitbread Round the World Race, finished fifth among nine Whitbread racers competing in the Fastnet Race this week.The Fastnet is a 605-mile ocean race from England to Fastnet Rock and back. Fastnet Rock is off the southern tip of Ireland.According to reports from skipper George Collins and the Royal Ocean Racing Club, which puts on the race, Chessie and the other W60s were impressive in their final major tuneup for the round-the-world race, which starts next month in Southampton, England.

Ever wonder what it is like to race a sailboat offshore? Electronic mail from the 10 boats racing in the Whitbread Round vTC the World Race offers a glimpse of the exhilaration, frustration, pleasure and pain of ocean racing."