Yachting: Out of Africa, into the America'sCup

By Suzanne McFadden

Liz Baylis spent three years working with Aids sufferers in the heart of Africa.

Now she has hung up her white coat to sail in the cockpit of America True in its America's Cup campaign, which kicks off in earnest in 17 days.

The Hauraki Gulf is far removed from Lake Malawi, where microbiologist Baylis spent two-and-a-half years in her other job.

She worked in Aids research for the World Health Organisation, setting up laboratories in Malawi, Sudan, the Congo, the Seychelles and Mauritius.

Baylis, now 36, had no idea that she was going to Africa after she confused her destination with somewhere closer to her United States home.

"I thought they said I was going to Cancun, in Mexico," she said. "I was picturing myself windsurfing at Club Med and lying on the beach," she said.

"I was all ready to leave when I found out they had said Khartoum - in Sudan. I didn't know how I was going to pull my foot out of my mouth, so I didn't say anything and just went.

"It was the longest three months of my life. The hotel I was going to stay in was bombed a month before I got there."

She was more relaxed in Malawi - nicknamed the Switzerland of Africa - and even got to do a bit of sailing, racing catamarans on the lake.

She already had a strong sailing background, and dreamed of being part of an America's Cup crew.

She has got her wish through Dawn Riley's co-ed campaign.

Baylis has another job in the crew as the sailing team's "logistics co-ordinator" - or crew mom.

"That means taking care of everything for the sailing team.

"Co-ordinating the housing - letting people back into their apartments when they get locked out," she laughed.

"I get a bottle of wine every time. My wine collection is looking very good."

After the America's Cup, Baylis will return to San Francisco to her job with the Californian Health Department, where she co-ordinates the testing for vaccine trials.

She admits that there are moments when she wouldn't mind being behind her desk instead of leaning over a bank of winches.

"I miss the intellectual part of it," she said. "But I love the physical and mental part of sailing these boats."

She also misses her husband, lawyer Todd Hedin, who has had to stay in California because of his job.

The couple, who met through sailing, were married last year.

There has been little rest for Baylis and the True crew since they arrived in Auckland in July.

Since putting the new boat in the water, they have had 55 days of sailing - more than they expected in Auckland's volatile winter.

"We've had a lot of sailing," she said. "We've definitely proven our critics wrong."