Sometimes, You Just Have to Sail Hurt

In last weekend’s Women’s One-Design Challenge at Long Beach, 11 10-woman crews competed over three days on Catalina 37s, the same boats used in the Congressional Cup for world-class sailors each March.

On the first day, Pam Ridgeway, crewing aboard a boat from King Harbor Yacht Club in Redondo Beach, fractured a finger but continued to pack sails until she was relieved by an alternate.

On Saturday, Diane Austin on a Cabrillo Beach YC entry fell through the forward hatch and suffered broken ribs and a knee injury. She had to be taken to shore by paramedics.

On Sunday, Sue Gorney of the King Harbor boat did the same thing, and the paramedics had to make a return trip. Gorney had broken ribs and a fractured shoulder.

Who says sailing’s a sissy sport?

How about men? By the way, Camille Daniels of Long Beach YC points out that men also have been known to fall through the hatch, which can catch crew members unawares in the heat of a regatta because it’s offset to one side.

Trivia time: Who won the first Senior PGA Tour event held in Los Angeles?

New look: His fans will see a different Riddick Bowe when the heavyweight champion appears in a FILA commercial as Robin Hood, a traffic cop, a railroad conductor and a mobster. Bowe’s reaction:

“For the past year, wherever I’ve gone, from Las Vegas to Somalia, people see me as the heavyweight champion. But for one day, it was great to be someone else like Robin Hood. It was like being a kid again--dreaming about being whoever I wanted to be.”

Changing times: When Al Franken was recruiting Kenya’s Kip Keino in 1966 for an indoor track meet, he had to call an operator in London, then another in Nairobi, Kenya, and finally Kijango 4, in the Rift Valley, where Keino lived, to talk to the runner.

Last week, Franken needed to contact the former Olympic champion to be a speaker at the Foot Locker National High School cross-country championships in San Diego on Dec. 11. How did he reach Keino? He has a fax machine at home.

Say what? Publicist Michael Knight, to Monterey County Herald reporter Mary Barker, on the attention being paid Nigel Mansell at Indy car races:

“I’m not trying to hype this, but this is what it must have been like when Elvis was King.”

Legend in his time: Tennis star Andre Agassi’s name will soon be appearing on Las Vegas maps. The names of two private streets in his southwest Las Vegas housing conclave will be changed to Andre Drive and Agassi Court.

The right look: Radford’s soccer players would have given the shirts off their backs to have beaten Virginia on Friday. The Highlanders lost, 2-0, but had to give up the shirts anyway. They were playing in borrowed Virginia uniforms--bright orange socks and all--because their own were in a team van that broke down.

“The way we played, I’m going to ask Bruce (Arena, Virginia’s coach) if we can buy those uniforms,” Coach Don Staley said. “At the very least, I want to borrow those orange socks for the rest of the season.”

Trivia answer Peter Thomson, in the Johnny Mathis Classic in 1985 at MountainGate Country Club.

Quotebook: Roger Neilson, Florida Panther coach, after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs: “It’s too bad you can’t get one point for an overtime loss. We tied the best team in the league for 60 minutes.”