Full details of today’s action to follow, but for now check out yesterday’s round-up video featuring some of the match racing from the quarter finals (though sadly not our all important deciding match which really was a thriller!)

Right, off for a wee celebration!

Lucy, Annie & Kate x

The regatta started on Monday, though strangely we began with a lay-day as Group A raced all day. Tuesday was our turn, and it was a long day on the water as we competed in both the first and the last of the 11 flights sailed by Group B. Six races in all for us, bit of an average start but an OK day with four wins and two losses.

Group A were out again first yesterday to complete their round robin, with Sally Barkow (USA), Silja Lehtinen (FIN), Ekaterina Skudina (RUS) and Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) making it through to the quarter finals. There’s a change of format this year at the World Cup events, with two groups of 12 instead of three groups of 8. The top 4 from each group then go straight into to the quarters, making it a pretty big cut with no second chances of progressing through a repechage round.

Yesterday we only did two races, first a win over Olivia Price (AUS), but then lost to Julie Bossard (FRA) which was pretty disappointing. A stupid mistake early on, we were both over the line early and I took the most ridiculous way to get back behind the line and ended up with too big a distance to try and catch up.

We’d been struggling a bit with a couple of little things in the boat over the last couple of days, but had a great day today. We had three races left to complete our round robin, and the results were really tight at the top. A good start to the day saw us with two wins against the Dutch teams of Renee Groeneveld and Mandy Mulder. With one flight to go to complete Group B there were six teams all pretty much tied on points with only the top 4 to advance. Our crucial final match was against Claire Leroy (FRA) and proved to be a typically close contest, but we just managed to get to the finish line ahead to make it three wins out of three and in fact to win the round robin. Had we lost to Claire however, I don’t think we’d have made the quarters on the tie-break, as indeed the French team didn’t.

Due to a breakdown we had a bit of a wait while the other three quarter finals were held, before we were on against the 4th place finisher from Group A — our adversary from the World Championship finals in Perth just a month ago — Anna Tunnicliffe. The 0–4 score line from our last encounter belied the closeness of the racing, and this time around was no exception either. Today we were starting really well against them and in fact in the first two matches we were leading her the whole way round the course only to get rolled at the finish line. Two-nil down in a first to three wins match is never a great place to be, but we had confidence and dug deep to turn it around, kept on doing what we were doing well and worked out how to defend her a little bit better, and delivered three straight wins to advance to the semis.

It’s really good to have got through the quarter-finals, it is always a massive sigh of relief because it’s such a big cut and everyone racing in the quarters is good — Anna’s the World Champion and we meet her in the quarters. It’s a really tough stage and a relief to get through it! A pleasing end to a pretty tough day :)

Tomorrow we’re up against Silja Lehtinen’s team from Finland, follow the action on Twitter @RMOCR_CourseE or at matchracingresults.com.

Cheers,

Lucy, Annie & Kate x

The Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta will be our first event of a somewhat important year for us! Although entries are down for some classes, we have a full entry of 24 teams in the match racing so it should be a great week and with the selection for the final three nation spots taking place the week after, results will be watched closely. The most important thing for us to achieve here (other than coming home with a gold medal of course) is to have an even clearer goal of what we want to achieve in training during February and March.

As I said racing starts on Monday so until then the plan is to get settled in to the Phillips house (very generous British family that house us) today and have a few cuddles with their dog Cookie! Tomorrow we’ll have another training session, register and catch up with Team Sperry and hopefully we’ll then be all set to start on Monday.

Update: Acctually the racing schedule has just been announced, there will be two round robin groups with Group A racing on Monday so we’ll have to wait until Tuesday until we get started as we’re in Group B. See matchracingresults.com for all the action.

We’ll keep you posted!

Lucy

Having been working towards the Olympics for many years, it now seems really rather close! Time is going by very quickly, we’re really excited but there’s still plenty to do. People keep saying ‘You can win it’ but the pressure is really from ourselves, we know we can do it.

At the moment we’re in Miami for two weeks training ahead of the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, the first stop on the 2012 Sailing World Cup tour. All the top teams will be competing, so it’ll be another valuable test for us in working towards our goal of gold in Weymouth later this year.

In other news today, we’re delighted that our fellow Skandia Team GBR team mates Luke Patience and Stu Bithell have officially been selected as the Men’s 470 team representatives for Team GB, and will be joining us at the Games in Portland and Weymouth. Woop! :)

Sunset in Miami...

]]> http://www.matchracegirls.com/news/2012/01/200-days-to-go/feed/ 0 http://www.matchracegirls.com/news/2012/01/an-interesting-start-to-the-year/ http://www.matchracegirls.com/news/2012/01/an-interesting-start-to-the-year/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:14:36 +0000 Ian http://www.matchracegirls.com/?p=1881 Happy New Year! Let’s hope 2012 is a successful one :)

We’ve had an interesting day today, appearing as special guests at the “groundbreaking” ceremony to officially mark the beginning of the £3.5M Sealife Tower which is being built in Weymouth. The 53 meter tall observation tower will be a striking addition to the seafront, due for completion ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games, and will provide 360 degree panoramic views of the Jurassic Coast, rolling Dorset countryside, and the race area for the 2012 sailing events.

After being kitted up in our hard hats and high-viz jackets we wielded the ceremonial spades for the cameras, before a being hoisted by a crane nearly 40 metres above the ground to appreciate the views. An enjoyable if not rather nerve-racking ride, braving strong winds and Kate’s fear of heights! It’s certainly an interesting perspective of the waters we know so well, though I’m sure it’ll be a more comfortable trip once the tower is completed :)

Check out the video and photos below…

We’re now packing in earnest as on Friday we leave for Miami, where we’ll be training then competing in our first event of the year.

Lucy, Annie and Kate x

Here is the event report written by Midge Watkins:

Hundreds of supporters from Poole and Parkstone Yacht Clubs turned out on December 27th for the 17th running of the annual Commodore’s Youth Challenge, an exciting youth Match Racing event consisting of 5 races.

This year Poole hosted the nail biting event using two Elan 333s (Beluga and Panache) with the Teams alternating between the boats after the first and third race.

The boats are sailed by ten under 18s with the owner or owner’s representative on board for insurance reasons.

Once again we are very grateful to John Wilcocks, the General Manager of the Poole Hotel du Vin and Bistro, for their very generous sponsorship, his support is greatly appreciated.

For the first race Parkstone won the prestart but hit the pin-buoy so umpires, Olympic sailors Lucy Macgregor and Annie Lush, flagged them a penalty. With Parkstone taking their penalty Poole gained the lead on the approach to the windward mark with Parkstone not far behind. The downwind legs were tight and intense but Poole won with a 10 second lead.

Poole won the prestart of the second race, cover tacking Parkstone up the beat, rounding the windward mark 6 boat lengths ahead. Parkstone gybed early onto a dead run with Poole gybing later to defend their lead. Poole rounded the leeward mark 7 boat lengths ahead, covering Parkstone up the beat and going on to win the race by 2mins and 30secs.

For the third race Parkstone confidently won the prestart, sailing up the beat with lots of speed and rounding the mark with Poole on their tail. Poole was taking Parkstone’s wind on the approach to the leeward mark and gained with some slick gybes. On the following beat Parkstone tried to cover by double tacking but they lost a lot of speed, Poole managing to keep their pace up to squeeze past. They then continued to extend their lead finishing 30 seconds ahead.

Fantastic team work from both squads made for another most entertaining and memorable event. With racing having taken place immediately outside Poole YC’s Yacht Haven it took little time for competitors and supporters of both Clubs to take to the Club house for the prize giving. Following the Prize giving an extended lunch has become a feature of the event providing a great occasion for the sailors at the two clubs to get to know each other better.

Team Parkstone: Will Reid, Millie Alcock, Liam Pardy, Alice Alcock, Johny Currell, Ollie Lauste, Jamie Taylor, Ella Cotton, Isabel Hillard, Naomi Flack, Miranda Foy (R), George Gillingham (R)

Team Poole: Tommy Hough, Kate Devereux, Anna Watkins, Rosie Watkins, Suzie Taylor, Tim Lees, Libby Courage, Beth Wyatt, Henry Sheppard, Amy Sparks, George Payne (R), Emma Hattersley (R)

It has been one of the more eventful years of our campaign! It did not start quite as well as we would hope when, whilst training for our first event of the year in Miami in January, Annie gave us a bit of a scare with an accident falling off the Elliott 6m on land which resulted in a bad cut on her head, dislocated wrist, broken nose and not being able to sail at all for the next month.  Mary Rook kindly flew in from Australia to fill in for Annie for the Miami Olympic Classes regatta and in the circumstances a 4^th was a great finish.  We’re pleased to say Annie is now fully recovered and the year started to become eventful for somewhat better reasons…

In February The Match Race Girls let a male member into the team. Maurice Paardenkooper who had previously been working with the Dutch team became our full time coach and since Day 1 we have not looked back. Maurice has been great to work with over the last 10 months and we are really looking forward to the next 8 with him. We were also lucky to team up with some great sponsors over the spring. Becoming part of Team Volvo for Life was a big step for us, not only are the trips to and from Weymouth a much comfier ride for us now, but we have also been able to bring in some great training partners to support us in our campaign and it has been brilliant to be part of the success that is Team Volvo for Life.  This coincided with Sperry Topsider and Oakley joining our team and providing fantastic equipment for us to sail in. Huge thanks go to all our sponsors and supporters, without whom we would not be able to push the boundaries in our training to get to where we need to be to win Gold next year.

After training in Palma over the February and March (again big thanks to all our training partners and Mary for filling in for Annie during some of this time) April saw the start of the European events which began in Palma. Unfortunately we came away from Mallorca with a bit of an indifferent result and a mixed performance. Two weeks later however we were in Hyeres for the third World Cup event of the year and a week later we returned with Gold; A great finals saw us seal the win over Sally Barkow’s  USA team 3-0 in light tricky winds.

Weymouth is a huge focus of ours and, similar to our plans this year, we were back training there as soon as possible in the spring trying to get used to the various courses we could be sailed on at the Games.  We ended up spending a lot of time there racing as well as Skandia Sail for Gold and the Pre-Olympic Test Event were held there.  It was great to have some sponsors and supporters come down on ‘Premier Flair’ and watch us win Silver at Sail for Gold, shame we couldn’t pull the same result out at the Test Event!  With September approaching it was time to freshen up and get away from Weymouth for a bit.  First stop was Sheboygan for some awesome training against Barkow’s team before a trip down to race in Chicago; this time Maurice was sailing with us in Tom 28 boats against some men teams.  We were pleased to put the boys in their place and win the event however unfortunately we couldn’t manage quite the same in Sheboygan the following week for the Nations Cup Grand Final where we sailed in the Open fleet after a last minute invite.  Although tactically we were even or better, we were 70kg lighter than the other teams and it showed big time in the semi and petite finals.  Racing against the guys is always a bit of fun though and the whole trip was a good wake up having sailed the same boats against the same people for the last year.

Next big event of the year, selection, we made it!  At the end of September we were officially selected to represent team GB at the Olympics and we can’t wait!  It is definitely a little scary that we are so close to the start of the Olympic Games in July next year.  We still have a huge amount we want to learn and improve on before then but it is also so exciting that after so many years of trying to be the best at what we do, we will have the opportunity to put it to the test and represent Great Britain on home waters just down the road from Poole Harbour where we all live and were brought up on the water.

Finally we like to thank everyone who has supported us this year however big or small.  We have great support from everyone within Skandia Team GBR and feel very luckily to have great personal team sponsors some of which have been supporting us since the 2012 Olympics seemed a very far away!  The support we have had during events like the Worlds just gone we find simply amazing and rest assured we’ll do everything we can in the next seven months to try and win an Olympic Gold for you!

Merry Christmas and a happy and successful New Year,

Lucy, Annie and  Kate  xxx

Today’s finals held in the harbour right in front of the packed grandstand provided a thrilling afternoon’s spectacle as the Women’s finalists battled for the title, demonstrating once again how match racing is an an exciting spectator sport for both sailing enthusiasts and non-sailors alike.

The Match Race Girls have been in Perth for about a month, cumulating in an intense two weeks of competition which has seen them compete in more than 40 individual matches. Coming ashore the girls commented “It’s been a great two weeks, but hard work. We’re really pleased with the way we’re sailing at the moment and our performance at this regatta, we’re quick, but today we made some mistakes in getting penalties which is quite frustrating. Without them we’d have been looking very strong today and the scoreline could have looked quite different. We’re looking forward to building on this and competing next year at the Olympics.”

Read more about the day’s racing at the Skandia Team GBR and Perth2011 sites, and there’s also been considerable interest in the news. Video highlights and a full report from the girls to follow later… for now there’s some celebrating to be done :)

After a day of extremely close racing on the Centre Course at Perth 2011 we’ve secured our spot in the finals tomorrow.

We did it the hard way though… losing out first two matches to Claire Leroy (FRA). It was then really do or die as in a best of 5 knock out we had to win all three of the remaining races, one win for them and they would go through. It was close, but we did it, pulling back to 2–2 and then winning the all important deciding match :)

Read all about it in the Skandia Team GBR press release and the Day 13 round-up on Perth2011.com.

Tomorrow we face Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) in a best of 7 matches to determine the 2011 World Champion.

Follow the action on MatchRacingResults.com which has links to video and GPS tracking. Racing begins 0600 GMT.

Cheers

Lucy, Annie and Kate x