> US SAILING Media > Sailor of the Week > 2009 > Sailor of the Week - November, 2009 > Carol Bareuther
Carol Bareuther
Sailor of the Week: Nov. 12 - 18
We at US SAILING rely on yacht clubs and their volunteers to run our national championship events on-site. As you can image, this is no small job. These yacht club professionals and their volunteers have a number of responsibilities. One of those is to handle all local public relations efforts in coordination with US SAILING.
Carol Bareuther was the public relations chair for last week’s U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship (USWMRC), hosted by the St. Thomas Yacht Club (STYC). Carol not only met the criteria required by the PR chair, but went above and beyond expectations. As a registered dietitian, she works at the Virgin Islands Department of Health. Carol picked up on public relations as another career endeavor about five years ago. She writes regularly for over 20 publications on topics of food and nutrition, travel and tourism, and of course - sailing. Not only did she write daily recaps for the USWMRC and distribute them to the local media, Carol coordinated local radio interviews with Bill Canfield, manager of the STYC, and regatta director, Ruth Miller. This was a great attempt to get the word out about the event. Bill and Ruth made four radio appearances either in person or via call-in, including an hour-long talk show. Also, the local Virgin Islands Daily News devoted a 2 ½-page spread to the USWMRC and St. Thomas Radiology Women’s Regatta & Tennis Tournament, which were held at the same time.
Carol and her partner Dean (photographer and attorney) have been covering the northern Caribbean spring regattas since the late ‘90s and their children, Rian (19) and Nikki (16) grew up watching from the press boat, and eventually sailing in these events. Rian is a first year cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, where he just finished nine weekends of sailing as a freshman dinghy skipper. Nikki won top girl at the Opti Nationals and top North American Girl at the Opti North Americans in 2007. Nikki and her crew finished first in the St. Thomas Radiology Women’s Regatta, and she was thrilled a few days earlier to sail with Anna Tunnicliffe’s team in practice for the USWMRC before Anna arrived.
“For me, from the writing and PR side, but more importantly as a mother of two very dedicated sailors, sailing has definitely become an integral part of my life,” Carol said. “Sailing has taught Rian and Nikki so much, allowed them to form character traits that are serving them well in life,” she explained.