YOUNG AMERICA TEAM LEADS AFTER FIRST ROUND OF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH RACE IN SWEDEN

SOUTH PORTLAND, ME, July 2, 1997- Ed Baird and his New York Yacht Club/Young America won four out of five races today in Marstrand, Sweden, to lead the Swedish Match World Championship of Match Race Sailing after the first round robin with a 7-2 record. Peter Gilmour of Australia and Magnus Holmberg of Sweden trail Baird with 6-3 records.

The NYYC/Young America sailing team includes skipper Baird, the top-ranked U.S. match racer; Tony Rey, tactician; Geordie Shaver, foredeck; Jamie Gale, pit; and Jon Gundersen, trimmer.

In a light to moderate southerly, shifty breeze of 6-12 knots, Baird and the NYYC/Young America team defeated France's Thierry Peponnet, Germany's Jochen Schumann, Great Britain's Chris Law, and Holmberg. The team's only loss of the day was to Gilmour, the skipper of Japan's America's Cup Challenge.

In the first race of the day with Peponnet, the Baird team took the lead from the start and continued to pull away. In the second match with Schumann, the NYYC/Young America team led around the first lap, before Schumann snatched the lead at the second leeward mark. Baird attacked and regained the lead, winning the match.

In the third race of the day with Gilmour, the NYYC/Young America team was penalized in an incident at the start where Gilmour hit the pin end of the line and Baird's boat. In a "soft, strange and swirly beat," the NYYC/Young America team maintained their lead, Baird said. "Gilmour caught up to us on the first beat. It was a close race; we were overlapped at the last weather mark." The NYYC/Young America team had no chance to take the penalty turn and maintain a winning margin.

In the next match, Law was penalized at the start in a port-starboard situation. After a good fight up the first beat, Baird took the lead and went on to win. In the final match of the day, the NYYC/Young America team had a fantastic start, leaving Holmberg with no boat speed off the line. The NYYC/Young America team got the first shift and led by 20 boat-lengths at the weather mark.

The field for the Worlds includes nine of the ten top-ranked match race sailors in the world competing in 37-foot DS Match Racers for a cash purse of $100,000. The regatta format includes two round robins that are scheduled to run through Friday, July 4 with a semi-final round on Saturday, July 5 and a best-of-five finals on Sunday, July 6.

Standings as of July 2, after two days of racing: Baird (7-2), Gilmour (6-3), Holmberg (6-3), Peponnet (5-4), Pace (5-4), Henriksen (5-4), Bank (4-5); Law (3-6); Mohr (2-7); Schumann (2-7).