LACK OF WIND POSTPONES FIRST DAY OF RACING

by Dana Paxton on 27 Nov 2000 St. Petersburg, Fla. (November 26, 2000) - With black skies, pouring rain
and no sign of wind for the better part of the afternoon, organizers
officially cancelled today's racing at the Rolex 2000 ISAF Women's World
Match Racing Championship. 'It's only a slight delay in the schedule. We
have a half-day of racing to make up,' said Event Co-Chair Pat
Seidenspinner (St. Petersburg, Fla.). 'It's very doable to complete a full
round in one day, but it will take a lot of stamina by the teams.'

Racing will resume tomorrow on Tampa Bay with each skipper seeded 9 to 24
sailing against each other in Sonar keelboats. Hannah Swett (New York,
N.Y./Jamestown, R.I.), who is coming off a very successful year of match
racing, is seeded 16.

The top-eight seeded skippers and teams get a bye from racing until
Tuesday, when the second round is tentatively scheduled to begin. World No.
2 and the 1998 winner of this event, Betsy Alison (Newport, R.I.) will face
Dru Slattery (Marblehead, Mass.), defending champion Dorte Jensen (DEN),
Klaartje Zuiderbaan (NED), Cordelia Eglin (GBR), Paula Lewin (BER), Shirley
Robertson (GBR), and Christine Briand (FRA).

The quarterfinal round will follow later in the week, with the final round
scheduled for Saturday, December 2. The winning skipper of the Rolex 2000
ISAF Women's World Match Racing Championship will be awarded a Rolex
timepiece.

At tonight's opening ceremony at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, ISAF
Technical Representative Hans-Kurt Andersen will officially welcome teams
representing the U.S., Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway,
Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and The Netherlands.

Supporting sponsors of the Rolex 2000 ISAF Women's World Match Racing
Championship are Condé Nast Publications/SELF magazine and Florida 2012, an
organization working to bring the Olympics to the Tampa Bay area.

Digital photos by sailing photographer Dan Nerney will be posted to
www.spyc.org after each day's racing.

The official Notice of Race, Preliminary Sailing Instructions, competitor
bios and photos are posted at www.spyc.org.