Sailboats Race For Charity  Hi-tech Data Used To Determine
Winners  October 04, 1998|By SARAH SUE INGRAM Daily Press
HAMPTON — The bad luck of the draw kept Fatal Attraction from
winning the Hampton Yacht Club's fourth annual Hospice Regatta
Saturday.  The draw of the sailboat is 9 1/2 feet of water, and
that was the problem.  It gets complicated. When different types
and sizes of sailboats race each other, they are given handicaps
just like golfers - except in ``time'' instead of ``strokes.''
For example, Fatal Attraction had to give Avalanche about four
minutes, the bigger and faster boat's crew said.  Fatal
Attraction, a 39-foot sailboat skippered by Ken Saylor, actually
crossed the finish line first of all the big boats in the
regatta. But running aground three times - due in part, the
winning crew contended, to an altered course by the race
committee - cost Fatal Attraction time and dropped it to fourth
place in the preliminary results.  Fatal Attraction filed a
request for redress immediately after the