On Saturday, some twenty women gathered for the Neuse River Women's Invitational Race. This was the 2003 race. As NRYA's Bill Jarvis noted, the race had originally been scheduled for last September but then, "one lady came and interfered with our plans."

The lady was Hurricane Isabel - hitting Oriental on September 18th and forcing organizers to postpone the annual women's race until now.

Margaret Alexander, LuAnn Parins, Peg Maynard

The winning boat was Margaret Alexander's "Orion" with LuAnn Parins and Peg Maynard as crew. They weren't willing to share their winning technique, but we wondered if the crew's choice in toenail polish gave "Orion" her edge.

Matching toenails are tough to beat. We wonder if they would bring out the same competitive edge in co-educational sailing events.

Second place went to Carolyn Rush and her crew aboard "Apple Pie".

Third went to Michele Bessette and crew on "Sea Shell".

Fourth was Missy Baskervill & crew on "Nordsee Schwalbe." The course was a "modified Olympic" of about 8-1/2 miles with starboard roundings.

Bill Jarvis noted that in the race Saturday there were "a couple of really big boats and really big crews" and said he hoped that in the scheduled 2004 race this fall that there would be more boats competing, perhaps with smaller crews in order to "spread out the competition."

The after race crowd lines up for a pig pickin' at the Oriental Marina Inn.

Race coordinator Missy Baskervill says they will be having another women's race this year - the 2004 version. The 2004 NYRA Women's Invitational is planned for Saturday September 25th - provided hurricane season doesn't send us another unwanted visitor.