Country's Top Women Match Racing Sailors to Compete in U.S. Women's Match Racing Championship

When this year's competitors gather in Rochester, New York, from September 10th through 14th for the U.S. Women's Match Racing Championship (USWMRC), the scratch sheet will read like a current Who's Who list of women's sailing. This invitational event, rated by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) as a Grade 3 event, will feature twelve teams comprised of top women sailors from throughout the United States vying for SAILING's Allegra Knapp Mertz Trophy. The regatta, hosted by the Rochester Yacht Club (N.Y.) and raced in Sonars, is sponsored by Rolex Watch U.S.A. and Dry Creek Vineyard. This event will undoubtedly see some of the most closely contested sailing in recent women's match racing history.

Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), fresh from her gold medal winning Laser Radial performance at the Olympic Games in China, will skipper a team, as will fellow Olympian and US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics member Deborah Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.). In 2005, these two sailed together with Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.) and Lee Icyda (Newport, R.I.) to capture the USWMRC title in 2005. Capozzi, who also crewed on the winning team in 2000, went on to skipper the winning team in 2006 with Lindsay Bartel (Bayport, N.Y.), Kelly Hand (Vancouver, Canada) and Chantal Legler (Montreal, Canada).

2007 USWMR Champion skipper Liz Baylis (San Rafael, Calif.) and crew Susanne Leech (Simsbury, Conn.) will be an undeniable force to be reckoned with as they have been on winning teams at this event (together and separately) since 2002. Earlier this year, they captured silver at the ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship in Auckland, New Zealand. Baylis is currently ranked fifth in the ISAF Women's World Match Race rankings.

Three-time event runner-up Katy Pilley-Lovell (New Orleans, La.) will skipper a team, as will four-time Yale All-American sailor Molly Carapiet (Belvedere Tiburon, Calif.) and 2007 Sundance Cup winner Elizabeth Hjorth (Marina del Rey, Calif.). Rounding out the fleet will be teams skippered by Anne Gardner Nelson (San Diego, Calif.), Maegan Ruhlman (Bratenahl, Ohio), JoAnn Fisher (Annapolis, Md.), Killian Corbishley (Rochester, N.Y.), Andrea Cabito (Alameda, Calif.), and Ginny Tulloch (Tiburon, Calif.).

Complete results, daily reports, and photos from the event will be posted on the event website at www.ussailing.org/championships/adult/women/uswmrc. The U.S. Women's Match Racing Championship for the Allegra Knapp Mertz Trophy is part of US SAILING's National Championships series. For more information about these events, visit www.ussailing.org/championships.

Lack of books about freighters spurs educator to pen her own

The Times Herald

As she was growing up, Marlene Weir loved to watch freighters move along the St. Clair River on hot muggy nights.

Now, she's sharing the ships' stories with children.

The Lakeport resident published her first book, "I Know Where the Freighters Go," last month.

Along with her own experiences, the preschool teacher at St. Edward's-On-The-Lake Catholic School said her students influenced the book.

"I've watched freighters all my life and really enjoyed them, and the children who come to school here have seen them and are really interested in them," Weir, 58, said.

When she looked for a book on the topic to share with her students, she said she couldn't find anything that was appropriate for their age. So, Weir, who writes under maiden name, Miller, wrote one of her own.

The book is targeted for children 4 and older and answers a little boy's questions: "Mama, where do the big boats go? Where are they sailing, do you know?"

Along with the answers to the questions comes information about life aboard a freighter and what kind of goods they carry.

It's important for children to know why the freighters are moving up and down the river, she said. more

Group urges cities to adopt green infrastructure to curb sewage spills

The Canadian Press

An environmental group says municipalities across the province are allowing billions of litres of raw sewage to be dumped into the Great Lakes every year through outdated sewer systems - a problem they say could be prevented with green infrastructure.

In a report released Monday, Ecojustice Canada says that 89 Ontario municipalities are operating with antiquated infrastructure that allows sludge to overflow into the province's waterways.

The culprit is combined sewers, which carry untreated sewage and rainwater in a single pipe, said Liat Podolsky, a science researcher at Ecojustice and co-author of the report.

During wet weather, the volume of flow often exceeds the sewers' capacity, causing the untreated sewage and storm water to overflow into local waterways.

"The problem is increasing now because the populations in these cities are increasing with time, so there's more strain on the system itself just from greater amounts of sewage, and from greater amounts of storm water as a result of climate change," Podolsky said.

Most of these sewers were built in the early 20th century and aren't able to meet today's demands, Podlosky said.

The best way to prevent the problem is to implement green infrastructure - such as green roofs - that will absorb the rainwater rather than sending it through the sewage system. more