Team Seven - Receiving the Rolex Award

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Receiving the Rolex Award

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New York, NY
March 6, 2008

I don’t know what’s best about being named Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year – the trophy, the engraved Rolex timepiece or the luncheon in your honor in the Model Room of the New York Yacht Club in New York City. Jeff Linton, Lightning World Champion and I were feted as the 2007 Rolex winners at a recent luncheon at the club.

With Rolex winner Jeff Linton - - Photo: Dan Nerney/Rolex

This was my second Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year award. I also won the trophy in 2005 but the experience was just as wonderful the second time around. This time was perhaps even better because I really took in the grandeur and the sense of yachting tradition and history the room projects.

Standing in front of that incredibly ornate great fireplace to receive my award and flanked by models of all the yachts that have contested the America’s Cup over 150 years, I couldn’t help but feel a little awed to be a part of the scene.

Lunch in the NYYC Model Room - - Photo Dan Nerney/Rolex

You don’t win a Yachtswoman of the Year award on your own and I was really pleased that my Olympic campaign crewmember Debbie Capozzi, from Bayport, NY could be present, as were our added match racing crew members, Annie Lush, from Poole, England and Amanda Callahan, Canton Mass. Carrie Howe, Grosse Pointe, Mich, who is my other Olympic and match race crew, was unable to join us because she was preparing for a fund raiser for our Team 7 Sailing Olympic team at her home yacht club. Our efforts are always as a team. Winning the Rolex is testimony to the goals we were able to achieve.

My family were able attend the luncheon and join me for the day in New York and that was a rare treat because I don’t see as much of them as I want to with all our extended campaigning around the world.

The occasion also recognized some of the other women who are Rolex winners. Jody Swanson Starck and Cory Sertl, who are both former Yachtswomen of the Year, assisted with the presentation and I sat with Dawn Riley who is another past winner.

In a few days our Team 7 Sailing will be headed to the Spanish Mediterranean island of Palma de Mallorca for the 39th Trofeo S.A. R. Princesa Sofia Regatta but I won’t soon forget the honor accorded to our team and the gracious manner in which we were recognized.

Sally Barkow
for Team Seven Sailing -
- Sally Barkow, Debbie Capozzi, Carrie Howe