Annie Get Yer Guns!
(Fort Worth, Texas- Mar 16-20)- Long-time J sailor Annie Gardner Nelson recently attended the Sundance Cup racing J/22s out of the Fort Worth Boat Club. Here's here amusing report: "The 2010 Sundance Cup was hosted by the St Worth Boat Club and sailed on the club's fleet of matching J/22's. This year the event was preceded with a 2 day clinic run by WIMRA (Women's International Match Racing Assoc) Director Liz Baylis and assisting her was Kirsten Lane of Sausalito, CA. Baylis did an excellent job of balancing drills with chalk talks and on the water coaching.
Skippers were invited based on ISAF ranking and/or resume and 7 teams from across the country and Canada attended with many teams using at least one Texan to fill the boat. My team was all Texan other than me and boy did I learn some funny jokes and accents! Anyone who was there will fondly remember my bowchick Kritter who wore camouflage pants, hockey shirts, and had us all in stitches at meetings and on the water.
Race day one was extremely light and the FWBC they were only able to complete 4 flights. Day 2 the storm was coming and by mid day the wind increased with puffs to 20 so the no spinnaker rule came into play. Even without kites the racing was fun and intense as match racing is always about constant action. Day three a snow storm was close by, and with wind gusts hitting 29 knots the RC and OA decided to abandon any further racing. The results went back to the round robin scores, and the winners were Maegan Ruhlman 1st, Katy Lovell 2nd, and Liz Hyorth 3rd. With a day off, the girls went shopping and watched as the snow flurries hit the ground. The awards dinner saw several crews wearing cowgirl hats which stayed on all the way through the night while we rode bulls and danced to Travis Twitt at his concert at the famous Billy Bobs's in downtown Ft. Worth. Texas will never be the same! Yeehaw! Annie Nelson"
Photo Credits: Cindy Cady
