GBR Match Race Girls

7–10 knots greeted us today and plenty of chop as more and more spectator boats joined our course which led to some fantastic racing against Anna Tunnicliffe’s American team in the finals of the Women’s Match Racing at the Rolex Miami OCR. In this regatta however we unfortunately only managed 18 straight wins and not the magic 19 we needed to win the gold undefeated!

After the first two races we were 2–0 up and feeling good, but the conditions were very tricky with us rarely being more than two boat lengths apart. In the third race however after a great first beat we once again led round the first windward mark, but were given a (slightly debatable) penalty on our rounding. From there Tunnicliffe sailed well to stay ahead and get a point on the board. The next two races continued to be close with us winning the starts but struggling to gain any distance up or down wind. With Tunnicliffe winning the 4th race it was 2–2 and all down to the final race which was extremely close literally down to the final 20 meters to the finish line where they eventually beat us by half a boat length.

We are of course really gutted and disappointed not to have won the gold, however Annie, Ally and I have had a really fantastic week and have shown the world that we’re the team to beat. Anna and her team sailed the boat really well today and I’m told the racing between us was great to watch!

Thanks for all your support and we’ll keep you posted on our next move!

Lucy x

And the winning continued today… still undefeated we had some great racing, finishing our quarter finals 3–0 against Lotte Meldgaard (DEN) and then beating World #1 Claire Leroy (FRA) 3–0 in the semi finals!

We’re really pleased with how we’re sailing, and with how we are still chipping away at improving our tactics, speed and boat handling. The forecast is for us to have a bit more wind tomorrow from our 10 knot average today and after a very close semi final that went to 5 matches, Tunnicliffe’s team (USA) came out as our opponents for tomorrow.

Our aim for this event was a medal which we’re delighted to have achieved, but with that now secured, tomorrow is all about winning! Fingers crossed!

Lucy x

Check out the event website and Skandia Team GBR website for up to date results and a few words from Annie! There are a load of videos at sailgroove.org and they may well have live coverage of the finals tomorrow.

Annie, Ally and my winning streak continued today as we started our Gold fleet round robin and won all three races beating Anna Tunicliffe (USA), Sam Osbourne (NZL) and Nicky Souter’s (AUS) teams. Also taking place today were races for the repechage fleet where two of the six teams will qualify through to join the gold fleet competitors in the quarter finals (the gold fleet round robin is just a method to seed the teams for the quarters).

The conditions today were fantastic, although it was a little chilly at our 8.00am briefing, the land soon warmed up and the 7-10 knot northerly breeze provided good close racing amongst the fleets. Our first race was against Tunicliffe and after leading in to the start in the last minute we were able to secure a strong windward position and match their first few tacks to then gain a comfortable margin for the rest of the race. Next up were the Kiwis and a fairly even pre-start led to us winning the side we wanted but unfortunately pulling the trigger a little early and starting over the line! A quick dip however and we were still hot on their heels up the first beat. Good speed helped us close the margin slightly and then a solid lee-bow tack by us, slowed them and meant on the next tack up to the starboard layline we were crossing their bow. Conservative sailing from then on gave us our second win of the day with one more race to go. The Australians won their group in the first stage so we knew they could be tough competition and with quite a random pre start it was still any one’s game until a call by the umpires (possibly wrongly?) went against them. We were then slightly on the back foot behind them with only 45 seconds until the start and not much time left to kill but a great execution coming up on the starboard layline with her below meant we started on the right, up to speed and with all our options. Matching their tacks up the first beat allowed us to pull ahead more and then extend on every leg to the finish.

Tomorrow the race committee will look to finish all four groups, the repechage, gold, silver and bronze fleet, allowing them to go into quarter finals on Friday. We’re really happy with how we have been sailing so far but are  making little mistakes so will definitely be looking to work on those areas tomorrow before Friday’s playoffs.

Until  tomorrow, bye for now!