FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 11, 2001

When Annapolis sailor Gale Browning crosses the starting line today in the Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race, she'll have company—a full crew of fellow sailors on board her 21-foot Finot-Conq-designed Mini-Transat sloop—making for conditions far different from those she will face later this year when she competes in the single-handed Mini-Transat Race, a grueling 5,000-mile contest running from La Rochelle, France, to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, with a stopover in Lanzarote, Canary Islands.

Browning, 44, is the only American woman ever to enter the biennial Mini-Transat in the race's 24-year history, and the single U.S. entry to date in the 2001 race.

For most sailors in the Fort Lauderdale-Key West race—the majority of whom are using the event as a feeder race for next week's five-day action fest of short-course, round-the-buoys races at Yachting Key West Race Week—the 160-mile race is a long-distance event. For Browning, however, it will be a short sprint, about one-tenth of the distance of the Mini-Transat's first leg to Lanzarote.

After successfully completing a non-stop solo run of over 1,100 miles from her home in Annapolis, Md., to Miami last month as part of the qualifying process for the 2001 Mini-Transat, Browning is using the Fort Lauderdale-Key West Race as yet another opportunity for on-water training in race conditions, to help her refine her boat speed skills and further explore the subtleties of sail trim and boat handling on the radical, ultralight, wedge-shaped sailboat with its twin rudders and articulating spinnaker pole/bowsprit which extends forward nearly half the length of the 21-foot hull. Under conditions stipulated for this race, however, she will rely on the "moveable ballast" of additional crew members and will not be using the boat's built-in water ballast, which ultimately will help her stabilize the boat with its enormous sail area in single-handed Mini-Transat conditions.

Equally important to her Mini-Transat campaign, Browning also is seeking to expand public awareness of her quest and garner additional support for her effort by taking part in this high-visibility event. In support of this aspect of her campaign, Fort Lauderdale-Key West Race organizers agreed to allow her to compete even though her boat's hull length falls short of the event's minimum size.

Browning explained that safety and speed issues which would preclude other small boats from entering the race are essentially nonexistent in the case of her boat, which she purchased at the finish of the 1999 Mini-Transat in Guadeloupe from Spanish boatbuilder Albert Bargues. Bargues had just three months to practice between the launch of this boat and the start of the 1999 Mini-Transat, yet he still finished 9th out of 70 starters, proving that the boat is fast and strong. In other racing Browning has done with this boat, she has a PHRF handicap rating which places the boat in the same division as boats twice its size and more; in one Chesapeake Bay distance race last year, she finished third in the highly competitive PHRF A-1 class dominated by 40-footers.

With recent weather forecasts for the next day or two calling for southerly breezes at 10-15 knots turning southeasterly by tomorrow evening, conditions are favorable for Browning's boat. Last night she was seriously optimistic about her chances to win her class in this race.

Following the finish of the Fort Lauderdale-Key West event, Browning will be on hand in Key West through next week's Race Week events before returning with the boat to Miami. In March she will ship the boat to France and begin competing in a series of qualifying and practice events in Europe before the September start of the Mini-Transat. Through it all, she and her shoreside team of volunteers are hard at work seeking sponsorship to help underwrite the cost of her Mini-Transat campaign. Gale Browning's US Challenge for the 2001 Mini-Transat has the backing of Annapolis' Eastport Yacht Club and the non-profit 501(c)(3) EYC Foundation, which can accept tax-deductible donations in support of Browning's campaign. Major sponsorship is still needed, however, and at this writing the prestigious position of Title Partner, complete with the opportunity to name Browning's boat and campaign, is still available.

For more information on Gale Browning and her historic campaign for the 2001 Mini-Transat Race, visit the website at www.2001minitransat.com or call Browning at 410-562-8085 in Florida, or 410-263-3609 at her home office in Annapolis, or e-mail Gale@2001minitransat.com. For more information on partnership opportunities, or to make a donation in support of the campaign, call Project Manager Kathy Weber, 410-263-5938 (home), 410-822-6950 (office), or e-mail Kathy@2001minitransat.com.

MEDIA ONLY: For more information, contact Nancy Noyes, 410-263-5028, or reply to this e-mail. Thank you for your interest.