For America's Cup fans - the first in a series of America's Cup Class events preceding the next Cup challenge will be aired on Outdoor Life Network (OLN) during September. The winner of the 2003 Cup, Alinghi, will face off against the Challenger of Record, Oracle BMW Racing, on the San Francisco Bay for the first time since meeting over in New Zealand. Hosted by Peter Isler, Gary Jobson and Dawn Riley, the two-part Moet Cup will feature a daily match race, called the Owner/Driver Series, which will be five races worth one point each. The second part of the contest will be the Pro/Driver Series, with seven races worth one point each. The Moet Cup will be awarded to the overall winner. The series began on Tuesday, September 16 and will continue through Friday, September 19 (days one - four) at 7 p.m. ET. On Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 20 and 21 (day five and six), OLN will air the Moet Cup at 2:30 p.m. ET. More information is available at www.olntv.com.

Speaking of the America's Cup, the Herreshoff Marine Museum's America's Cup Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is just around the corner, and will honor the 2003 inductees, Gary Jobson (Annapolis, MD) and Alan Bond (Fremantle, Australia). Ted Turner, "the mouth of the South," will introduce Gary Jobson, who was the tactician on Courageous, with Turner as skipper, when they captured the Cup in 1977. One can just imagine what stories Turner will relate when he shares his "personal insights". The Australian Consul General Ken Allen will introduce Alan Bond, the entrepreneur who led the Australian effort to wrest the Cup from American soil in 1983. The Induction Ceremony will take place on Thursday, October 16 at the Union League Club in New York. Tickets are available to the black-tie event individually and by the table. For more information, email J.Russell@herreshoff.org.

Normally this column does not report on letters written to the on-line sailing newsletter, but there was one recently published that warrants mention. In the Sept. 9 issue, Dave Gendell wrote about the kick-off dinner for the National Capital Area Volvo Leukemia Cup Regatta, and since the Port Washington YC is hosting this event on Saturday, October 11, his words are timely. Gendell writes that during the dinner, he met 3-year-old Leah Holdcraft, the regatta's "Honorary Crewmate." Leah was diagnosed with Leukemia when she was just under 2 years old, and is about to begin another round of chemotherapy. She has lost all her hair and is fairly weak, but still has the strength to play her favorite game, "doctor." It seems that she gathers her dolls and pretends to perform spinal taps and bone marrow aspirates on them, and also gives them "chemo" treatments and pretends to draw their blood. For those familiar with 3-year-olds, Leah's imaginary play, while very difficult to watch, is not surprising, for she is trying to make sense of her world. Wouldn't it be great if we could find the cure for this dreaded disease in our lifetime? Gary Jobson, mentioned above as one of the 2003 America's Hall of Fame inductees, is the National Chairman of the Leukemia Cup Regatta, who ironically was diagnosed with Leukemia last year, and like Leah, has undergone a round of chemotherapy. Readers can help this cause by supporting a boat that will sail in our area's Volvo Leukemia Cup Regatta. Checks should be made out to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and need to be collected prior to the Regatta and turned in the morning of the race. For more information, www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/regatta.

The results of the Cow Bay Cruising Association, the "Thirsty Thursday" group, had seven boats out on September 4. All were given course B - 0.84 nm. The winners in Division I: 1. Avalanche, Al Albrecht, 2. Promise Kept, Sandy Lindenbaum, and 3. Grace, Gene Gold. In Division II: 1. Xcite, Yalcin Tarhan, 2. Vision, Marc Epstein. A third boat withdrew. Top boats in Division III: 1. En Passant, Bob Ebenau, and 2. Serenity, Jacques Blinbaum.

Port Washington YC was Race Committee for the very rainy weekend of September 13-14. On Saturday the winds were variable out of the east at about 10-12 knots. Results for the Sonars, the only fleet racing on Saturday: 1. #682, Puff, Ralf Steitz, 2. #451, Ping, Sue Miller/John Browning, and 3. #396, Delight, Bob Kirtland. There were no results for Sunday.

Damian Emery, who was in Port Washington for the 2003 Knickerbocker Cup, and who loaned J105 Eclipse to KYC for the Cup event, has just won the Sailing World Larchmont NOOD Regatta. It was a close finish but "somehow all the cards fell into place" according to Emery. While the J105 fleet had just enough wind to sail their course, the other 12 classes had a tougher time trying to even start a race. Because of the lack of wind, the results from Saturday's racing became the final. Local sailors, Steve Moore and George Huntington along with Rich du Moulin, from Larchmont YC, sailed du Moulin's Express 37, Lora Ann, to a second place finish. Results of the NOOD regatta can be found at: www.sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=2004 Moore teamed up with du Moulin for the Vineyard Race on Labor Day weekend, a 238-mile course from Stamford Harbor, through Plum Gut, past Block Island, to the light tower at the entrance to Buzzard's Bay and back to Stamford Harbor. They came in third in their division.

About a month ago this column mentioned Monika Dorman's great win up in Glouchester, Massachusetts at the 2003 Blackburn Challenge, a 22 - plus mile, mostly open ocean race around Cape Ann. What she didn't tell us at the time was that she has also rowed around Cape Horn - sort of. The "sort of" is the operative phrase here, because Monika and her husband were on a cruise on the Ryndam, one of Holland American cruise ships. When the ship sailed around the Cape Horn, Monika scurried up to the gym and started rowing on a stationary machine and watched the scene around her unfold. No doubt this was Monika's "easiest paddle ever" - and is a great story to tell all her friends. Not content to stay put for too long, Monika was over on the north side of the Sound a few weeks ago, and won a 12-mile race from Westport to Norwalk in the Lighthouse to Lighthouse race.

David Campaniello, a product of the Port Washington YC Junior Sailing Program, will be participating in the International Sailing Federation's World Championship taking place in the Bay of Cadiz, Spain, Sept. 11 through the 23. David will be sailing Tornado, a catamaran, with Michael Grandfield. David is associated with the J-World Sailing School in Newport, RI and Key West, FL.