August 23, 2005

Amanda Callahan

Colin Merrick

GENEVA, N.Y.--Two former Hobart and William Smith sailors will compete in the 2005 Grey Goose ISAF Team Racing World Championship at the New York Yatch Club in Newport, R.I. Amanda Callahan, a member of the William Smith Class of 2003, and Colin Merrick, a member of the Hobart Class of 2001, will sail with team Silver Panda.

Twelve countries will compete in the biennial event, scheduled for Sept. 24 through Oct. 1. Competing will be two teams each from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States and one team each from the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Championship will be sailed off Goat Island in Naragansett Bay.

As runners up at last year's U.S. Team Racing National Championship, team Silver Panda earned the opportunity to represent the United States as USA 2 at the World Championship. The Pandas consist of skippers Patrick Hogan, Peter Levesque, and Merrick (Portsmouth, R.I.) sailing with crews Carlos Lenz, Liz Hall, and Callahan (Canton, Mass.). This marks the second trip to the World Championship for the Silver Pandas. In 2003, the team finished sixth out of 16 teams in Auckland, New Zealand.

As the name implies, team racing is not about a single boat's performance but the best combined score for each country's three-boat team in head-to-head races. The regatta will be sailed in supplied Vanguard 15s-small, high-performance planning dinghies. Each Vanguard 15 is manned by a crew of two for a total of six competitors per team, with at least one female sailor per team. The on-water action takes place at a lightning-fast pace, with races typically between seven and eight minutes in duration. The result is an emphasis on tactics and boat handling.

More information about the event is available online at www.nyyc.org/teamracingworlds.

Press release includes exerpts from a Media Pro International press release originally published on 7 July 2005.

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