Year 2003 introduced a large number
of newcomers to international
formularacing. Six events of 2003
Women Cup gathered 53 competitors on
the rankinglist. With the Silvaplana
event being cancelled, six out of
seven plannedevents took place. One
of the regatta was organized in
Squamish (B.C.Canada) which enabled
American women to join Women Cup.
All of theorganizers who hosted
women this year distinguished
themselves by makingsure women
racing was just as attractive as men's,
which included suchactions as
scheduling races in favour of women
fleet starting first andrunning
silver fleet racing. The growing
number of females at the start
linechanged their races - from being
just a small add to the men's - into
asecond part of a show. Racing of
both fleets was very well visible
tospectators on the beach and there
was no major interferering
betweenwomens/mens competitors
during races. This all created the
unique atmosphereof this years
formula racing. The silver fleet
system proved again to beright
solution aimed on opening racing to
formula newcomers. As a result
ofwomen developement 25 females took
part in 2003 Women Camp in the Lake
Gardaand 18 took part in PWA race
event in Leba, which was not part of
Women Cup.Since the idea of Women
Cup was born the avarage number of
females whoparticipate at formula
events has been gradually increasing
with thestandart of 18 racers at
each of big events this year. This
is a significantchange comparing to
appearance at the events couple
years ago.
The winner of the 2003 Women Cup
Dorota Staszewska (Starboard/Gaastra)scored
5 out of 6 wins, loosing the last
event of the year and the Worldtitle
to Christine Johnston (Starboard/Gaastra)
who participated only in tworanked
events, which placed her out of top
ten. Cosistency was showed byGerman
Chrsitine Becker (Starboard/Gun
Sails) who finished second in
oneevent and twice third and Verena
Fauster of Italy (Starboard/Gaastra)
withtwo seconds and two fourth
places.The dominating brands this
year wasStarboard and Gaastra with
top twenty ratio:
Starboard 16 out of 20
Gaastra 14 out 20
Comments by the winner Dorota
Staszewska
"It was another very succesfull
year for me although I didn't win
the finalrace and the World title. I
guess it is a sign for me, all the
girls and allthose interested in
women racing that our competition
becomes more and morechallenging,
fleet is rapidly growing and the
level of racing is
constantlyincreasing. I am
particulary happy to have "exported"
Women Cup overseas,which has helped
to promote formula racing outside of
Europe. I would liketo thank all of
the organizers of this years events
who treated us likequeens and helped
tremendously to promote formula. I
hope that 2004 bringsanother dozen
of new girls and we'll see some more
events on othercontinents. I would
like to thank my sponsors for
letting me perform at thevery top:
Starboard, Gaastra, Deboichet,
Billabong and most of all Era
andVolkswagen. I will keep pushing
all the girls and try to win again
next yearand, even though the
European and PWA titles feel great,
I will do my bestto fight back the
World title. As a member of FW
Committee I will continueto work for
the class with great hope for its
further development."
18th November '03
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