Local Women’s Team Sails Without Sidelined Skipper

From her room on the second floor of Long Beach Memorial Hospital, Linda Elias is still the skipper of the 50-foot sailing vessel Bay Wolf.

But she won’t be on board for the 2,216-mile Transpac race, which begins this morning. Elias, 46, has been sidelined by emergency surgery for an intestinal obstruction and the discovery of a small cancerous growth late last week.

It was Elias’ battle with ovarian cancer two years ago that inspired her to pull together her nine-member, all-female crew to sail Transpac. Her fight with the disease meant six surgeries, chemotherapy and painful complications.

Speaking from her hospital bed, Elias says she considers herself “extremely fortunate” that her current illness struck before she set sail to Hawaii. The trip, from Point Fermin to Honolulu, is expected to take nearly two weeks and will take crew members of the 40 competing sailboats out of the reach of emergency medical care for much of the race.

The crew of the Women’s Sailing Team has added San Francisco-based sailing veteran Liz Baylis to its roster.

Co-skipper Betty Sue Sherman of San Diego will take the helm when Bay Wolf heads out to sea today. A veteran of four Transpacs and dozens of other long-distance races, Sherman has also been involved with the America’s Cup challenge and is a certified U.S. Sailing Assn. judge.

“I know the responsibilities that a skipper has, and I take that very seriously,” Sherman says. “I’m a professional worrywart, and I worried about all kinds of things that you worry about before a long race--will the boat hold up, will the mast fall down, did I bring enough underwear? One thing I never considered was that Linda might not make the trip. I can’t tell you in words how it feels. She would be devastated if we didn’t go.”

“We’re going,” says crew member Betsy Crowfoot of Tustin. “Linda has always been our skipper, and we’ll miss her--it’s hard to think of her not being there--but we’re capable of doing the race.”

Crowfoot says it is an emotional time for the team but says Elias’ illness has added to the women’s determination to win.

“We were very motivated before, but this other motivation--that she’s sitting in a hospital bed waiting to see the results every day--we’re doing this for Linda.”