© Walter Cooper/US Sailing
Coop: We left off chatting with you in the midst of a skipper-driven review of the day’s Laser sailing, pre-coaching.
BA: Then match racing came onto the scene and I started doing that. I was sailing dinghies, keelboats, match racing…we did everything. I think we were a lot more versatile than these days, when people focus on one class and sail just that boat until they finish and pick another boat and sail that. We were sailing everything, all the time.
It was a crazy time, but the caliber of the people we sailed against was high. When we were doing the 470s trials, there were eight or ten really strong all women’s crews. And we raced against the guys. It was such a strong U.S. contingent. The pool of winning sailors was deep. Everyone was pushing each other, really hard. Today, there are maybe two or three 470 teams that are candidates. It was a super exciting time; you could not help but learn and get better. And a lot of the same women (her voice gets more excited as the memories come back) were sailing keelboats too, in the International Women’s Keelboat Championship, and a lot of us went into match racing. You’d see all the same people and be racing against them all the time.
Coop: You sailed in a match racing series very early on, yes?
BA: Yes, I won the first Women’s World Match Racing Worlds, in 1998 in Dubai.
Coop: What was it like sailing in Dubai? As a woman.
BA: We were told that we should be respectful of the local customs, culture if we were going to go out in town. The regatta was in a beachy kind of resort venue, but they said if you’re going to go into the city, or one of the towns or villages, be mindful of the culture. Be sure not to wear short-sleeved or sleeveless shirts, or short shorts. So, if you dressed appropriately everything was fine. And if you did not – and this didn’t happen to my team or the people we were hanging out with – but if you were in public and dressed inappropriately for local customs, you’d get hissed at. Not so much cat calling, but it made some competitors very uncomfortable. But part of that was because they weren’t respectful of local customs and behavior.
We were more worried about getting the right food, what the sailing conditions were like. We did two World Championships concurrently. We did the fleet racing in J/22s (rounding to port). Then in the afternoon we’d be match racing, rounding to starboard.
Coop: Was this at the same time?
BA: We might be fleet racing in the morning and match racing in the afternoon.
Coop: What drove the schedule to be like that?
BA: The fleet size, the number of available boats. We wanted to sail both events. We were the same crew for fleet and match racing disciplines. We won the match racing event and were second in the fleet racing series. I think we missed taking Gold in the fleet event by three points. We had a really successful event because we were training in multiple disciplines at the same time. We did thirty-five or forty races that week and we had a good time.
Coop: Tell me about the Yngling Worlds in Germany, with Suzy Leech and…
BA: Lee Icyda. Another Tufts grad, a Jumbo. Gosh, we were a good team. In ISAF ranking cycles we were number one for quite a while. That fleet in Germany was a super big fleet, I want to say close to 90 boats. And with men and women sailors, all sailing at the same time, we were so together for that event and it was just great. Suzy was excellent on the boat gauging the line. We started in the middle of the line so many times and people were telling us we were crazy. The RC had I flags up all the time
Coop: A fleet that size there is often a center line dip…
BA: Yes, though not as often as you would think, but Suzy always knew where the line was. You know trust is key, and we were all just on the same page. That was a really nice victory because it showed we know what to do, how to do it, we know our stuff.
Coop: Have you ever worked in your university field?
BA: No. I went to Tufts for Chemistry, but changed to History and Political Science. I had a really hard time when my father passed away, so I changed majors. When I graduated, I did some permanant substitute teaching, then I did some coaching and met my now ex-husband. We moved to Newport and I started working for Shore Sails which became North Sails. I worked for Kenny Read and Dan Neri for eleven years and ran one-design production for them in Portsmouth. So, I’ve not worked in my degree field. You never know what direction life will take you.
I was still doing some coaching. In 1998, I was invited by a fellow I had actually lost touch with. He and I raced Lasers against each other and he’d subsequently lost his leg in a car accident. He asked if I would coach the U.S. Team in the Disabled Worlds in 1998, in Newport. He said, “You live in Newport and you’re a great sailor. Will you help us out?” I had never coached anyone with a disability, and that is where I coached Paul Callahan and his team and a man named John Ross Duggan and his team. Six men with disabilities…Two were quadriplegics; they were the skippers.
Coop: Was this using the suck and blow tubes?
BA: No. At that time, they were fixed on one side of the boat. You could pick a side, but they both chose starboard side. Paul was a higher-level quadriplegic than John so he had his gear set up slightly differently. I had nothing to do with that. I came into this not knowing anything about disabled sailing or their disabilities. I said, “Tell me what your limitations are because I am not going to coach you any differently from an able-bodied sailor. The rules tactics are all the same, and we are going to share information.
When it comes to the last race, I am going to tell you what you need to win the Worlds. And it did come to the last race. John won by 3/4 point over Paul in second, and Paul was 3/4 point ahead of the German. ■
We will continue the discussion with Betsy in the July edition.
