Canadian couple takes on the world
Canadian couple Bill and Joanne Abbott are proof positive that married life can be plain sailing.

The Abbotts, together with Brad Boston, represent Canada in the three-handed Soling keelboat class in the Olympic regatta off Savannah.

That alone makes them unique, but significantly Joanne is the only woman in the Soling fleet at the Atlanta Games and one of very few in the world sailing the heaviest and longest of the Olympic boats.

"It's a weight thing," Bill explained. "Women don't usually compete because everyone tends to be fairly heavy in the class.

"We're a light crew, but no-one questions my wife's sailing ability."

Least of all Bill, who, casting around for a crew found one in his living room.

"It sort of happened over time. I'd had the (four) kids and we started doing a bit of sailing," Joanne said. ``We started to do pretty well and I was glad when Bill decided we should give this a try."

Both Bill, a 42-year-old boat builder, and Joanne, a 41-year-old chartered accountant were accomplished sailors in their own right before they got together on and off the water.

"I met her when she brought her boat over to be fixed," Bill said. "It took a long while to get it right, she had to keep coming back and back and ..."

The Abbotts said co-crew member Boston has become part of the family and is understanding when practice has to be cancelled "when one of our kids has got an important hockey game or something."

On the water, the marriage is tossed overboard, the on-board relationships reflecting time honored-yachting traditions: "It's two of us against him," Joanne said. "Every captain knows that."

A ninth place in Monday's first race of the Olympic regatta was a sound start to the Canadian Soling campaign and the Abbotts believe they are a definite medal chance.

"We've got good boatspeed and we've got good team-work, this could work out," Joanne said.

This story written by Reuters correspondents