Main Street

Dawn Riley shares sailing adventures locally

By Mary Ann Cook

LOS GATOS YACHT CLUB: Dawn Riley, perhaps the foremost woman sailor in the land, spoke at a recent L.G. Yacht Club meeting to a packed room of 100 sailors and fans in the Toll House Hotel. Riley was skipper of America True, the San Francisco Yacht Club's challenge for America's Cup 2000. She is the first woman to lead an America's Cup team.

Her talk was punctuated by slides and videotapes taken by Tom Zinn of the America's Cup race. Zinn, a Saratoga High school grad, now works as a videographer and computer consultant. He's also Riley's significant other. Riley grew up in Detroit and learned to sail as a child.

Her family cruised the Caribbean for a year. She was named Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. She has sailed in two Whitbread Round the World races. The Whitbread courses through 33,000 miles under extreme conditions. It goes from England, around South Africa and thence around the world.

It was an all-woman team and "there were times I wanted to put a couple of girls overboard, but the irony was I was responsible for them," she says dryly. The Whitbread takes nine months to sail; the crew eats freeze-dried food and doesn't shower for the duration.

Not exactly most people's idea of an around-the-world adventure. In another race where she was the only woman who made the team, she was dubbed "Pit Chick." There are 16 people on the America's Cup boat, but there are 600 volunteers who toil behind the scenes and 80 who help make the boat seaworthy.

"We dominated the America's Cup for 151 years because we cheated: We kept changing the rules," Riley says. Now the playing field is more level. The LGYC meets the second Tuesday of the month, and the commodore is Ted Miller at 408.353.8602.

TO HELP ORPHANS: A group from Calvary Church is in Romania to do the ground work for a larger group that will follow in August. The intent is to help the children orphaned by war and disease. The church group will build a residence to house those caring for orphans. A Romanian orphanage contacted Calvary Church. Dan Yoder and Terry Welfring are the two in charge.

ROYCE SCHOLARSHIP: Adelia Barber, class of 2001 at Brown University, won a Royce Scholarship, which will allow her to pursue her study of a very endangered wildflower, the Santa Cruz tarplant. It grows in the rare coastal prairies of California.

Barber will conduct experiments designed to improve the management of the plant, to find out why it has a low reproduction rate, and to figure out how to help in its restoration and survival. The awards are made in the areas of public service and research.

AVA ART SHOW: Members of the Saratoga Contemporary Artists, the Los Gatos Art Association and the Mountain Art Guild will show their works at the South Bay Fine Arts Festival on June 3 and 4, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. outside the Triton Museum in Santa Clara at 1505 Warburton Ave.

The event is sponsored by the Alliance of Visual Artists (formerly VAAST). On display will be fiber art, calligraphy, 3D art and mixed media, as well as oils, watercolor and drawings. For more information, call Dana Eaton at 408.733.3684, or Marian Gault at 408.395.8026.

OPEN MIC: Don't forget, Open Mic nights are the second Tuesday of each month at Borders Books in Old Town, hosted by Los Gatos poet Frances Roberts. Bernis Terhune was a recent attraction who drew some 30 fans to hear her poetry.

Terhune has a wicked sense of humor, honed when she was young. The impetus for her first play came when she was nine and mad at her mother. It was about a wicked mother, and she threatened to take it to neighbor Eugene O'Neill, who lived up the hill. Since she never got beyond page three, she decided to live with her wicked mother instead of lengthening the play for an O'Neill critique.

AT THE TAIT: Eduardo Smissen's mixed media works are on display during June and July at the Los Gatos Museum of Art and Natural History at 4 Tait Ave. A reception for the artist will be held on June 4, 1-4 p.m. Trained in Paris, Brussels and Los Angeles, Smissen incorporates found objects with acrylics.

AUDITION: Auditions for Rumplestiltskin will be held at the Saratoga Community Center on June 3, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for children in grades 2-12. Shows, sponsored by Saratoga Children's Festival Theatre, will be held at Wildwood Park on Aug. 5, 6, 12 and 13, .

A $79 children's fee and a $40 adult fee is payable to Festival Theatre Ensemble if roles are accepted. Director Shauna Harris adapted the fairy tale for the stage. Producer is Bruce W. De Les Dernier.

LITERARY AWARD: The Montserrat Review, edited by Calder Lowe, was one of two literary magazines cited for a significant contribution to American letters by National Public Radio. The Annual Award for Excellence is given by NPR's "The Poet and the Poem."

The award acknowledges publications that further established writers and present new literary voices. The local connection is the work of Los Gatan Parthenia Hicks and Saratogan Mary Lou Taylor, who have been showcased therein.

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