Yacht Racing

Is this a perfect event for Baltimore or what? Quirky. A little weird. Creative and fun. And it's coming to the Inner Harbor. It's called a kinetic sculpture race. And this isn't just any old kinetic sculpture race. Welcome to the first "East Coast National Championship Human-Powered All-Terrain Kinetic Sculpture Race."We will forgive you for now scratching your head and perhaps muttering "say what?" You are not alone. Unless, of course, you are a transplant from the West Coast, where people seem to invent these sorts of things.

The Baltimore Waterfront Festival will open today, and feature an oyster-slurping contest, Cajun zydeco music, a 30-foot girdle and a bicycle-powered dragon racing a beaver through the streets of downtown Baltimore.More than 100,000 people are expected to pack the Inner Harbor through Sunday to feast on crab cakes, Caribbean jerk chicken, gyros and dozens of other foods.Among those not gorging themselves are 11 sailors with an Annapolis team competing in a series of races near Fort McHenry that begin today and will offer a preview of some of the best skippers in next year's America's Cup.The Prime Outlets crew was jogging yesterday around Fells Point wearing foul weather gear and thermal jackets in the hot sun in an attempt to lose 60 pounds so they could qualify for the first Chesapeake Grand Prix race.

When nine sleek racing yachts sail up the Chesapeake Bay in a day or two, they will bring a potential economic impact of more than $28 million and the promise of worldwide publicity that may attract new visitors and businesses for years to come -- and may even help secure an Olympic bid."It is the kind of exposure for the Chesapeake Bay area that we couldn't possibly afford," said Dean Kenderdine, assistant secretary for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.Some Maryland officials view the cooperation that Baltimore and Annapolis show during the Whitbread Round the World Race as proof of an ability to organize, provide security, win sponsors and thrive in a global spotlight.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - When the international crews of the yachts competing in the Whitbread Round the World Race stepped ashore here at the end of Leg 1, they were following in the footsteps of mariners of old.Since its foundation in 1652 as a way station for vessels of the Dutch East India Company, Cape Town has been in the business of welcoming transoceanic sailors seeking rest, refreshment and repair.It has long been known as "The Tavern of the Seas," a reputation enhanced by development of a waterfront complex of hotels, restaurants, bars and shops to rival Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

SOUTHAMPTON, England -- Today, Paul van Dyke begins a race, and his wife, Anne, begins to wait.He'll be aboard the Chessie Racing yacht as Britain's Prince Andrew fires the opening cannon and 10 boats scurry for position in the Whitbread Round the World Race for the Volvo Trophy.And after the start she'll be back on shore, looking after their three kids at home in Connecticut, wondering how on earth she's going to pay the bills while her husband is off to such places as South Africa, Australia and Brazil.

One of Baltimore's richest men will sail around the world in a living space the size of a large doghouse. He will not have a shower. He will not have a bathroom door. He will sleep on a 2-foot-wide plank. There will be no blankets, no bedtime reading, no pillows.The man is George Collins, head of Baltimore mutual fund company T. Rowe Price, and the instrument of his discomfort is the boat he will race around the world in the 1997-1998 Whitbread challenge. In a 31,600-mile race that can be won or lost in a second, no element is more carefully analyzed for speed than the boat itself.

George J. Collins, president and chief executive of T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., said yesterday that he will leave the company in 12 months to fulfill a dream that he has cherished for years -- to sail around the world in an international yachting race.The announcement didn't surprise those closest to him, who have known for years that Mr. Collins has a passion for sailing and competition."If there is a leaf on the ground blowing, he has probably quickened his step to see if he can beat it to where it is going," said Maureen Collins, Mr. Collins' wife.

Members of the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association will be surprised to read in the latest issue of The Traveler, that association's newsletter, an explanation of refusal to accept legal liability by Dean Case, president of Reliance Insurance Company, based on the Doctrine of Assumption of Risk.This is not a new issue, and it is one many had thought was settled since the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., handed down its decision in the Annapolis-based Cinnabar-Ciro case (DeSole v. U.S.)

Arnold C. Gay, a yachtsman who competed in some of the world's most challenging ocean races and once flew an airplane underneath a bridge, died Wednesday at Anne Arundel Medical Center of scleroderma. The Annapolis resident was 74.He had sailed in every Annapolis-to-Newport, R.I., race except one and in 1978 won the St. David's Lighthouse Trophy in the Newport-to-Bermuda Race aboard his vessel, Babe. He won numerous Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association races and was a longtime coach and teacher in the Naval Academy's offshore sailing program until becoming ill several years ago.Rest and good food were his secrets for maintaining the stamina needed to compete in ocean races.

C. Gaither Scott of Annapolis has been honored by the U.S. Sailing Association, the national governing body of sail racing, and by the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association, this region's governing body, in recognition of his long years of service.Scott received US SAILING's most prestigious award, the Nathaniel G. Herreshoff Trophy, at US SAILING's annual general meeting in Dearborn, Mich.Then, last Saturday, CBYRA honored him with one of its own highest awards, an honorary life membership, at its annual general meeting in Hampton, Va.The Herreshoff Trophy is awarded each year, by vote of the US SAILING board of directors, to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to sailing in the United States.