Today was the start of the 3rd ISAF Sailing World Cup event of the year in Hyeres, France. It was a breezy day with many classes not getting out on the water at all but the Match Racers made it out on time and managed to get 3 flights in before having to return to shore because of the conditions.

We didn’t race today but will be on first thing in the morning for 7 races straight. The forecast is for quite a lot of wind again so it will be a pretty tough day, but we have trained quite a lot in big wind recently so it will be good to finally go racing in it! The plan is to complete one full round robin with the 17 teams before going into the knockout stages, I fear it could be a week of quite a lot of hanging around but lets hope the wind plays ball and we get some really good racing in instead!

Follow the action on Twitter via hashtag #2012SOF, or check out the Semaine Olympique Française website.

Keep you posted,

Lucy x

Morning! Today is our first day sailing back in Weymouth this year. October when we were last sailing here definitely feels like quite a long time ago and actually I think all three of us are looking forward to getting settled back down here and getting some good hours in on the Olympic waters. In many ways we are now heading into the next phase of the year, the last two months we have spent in our own little world really, training in Cadiz. We are really happy with what we achieved out there. Apart from the final week which with a lot of breeze and a quick trip to hospital turned out not to be the most successful week, the venue was great and everyone we had come and join us as training partners added a huge amount to the training.

When we left Cadiz it was to head straight for Palma to the second World Cup event of the year – Trofeo Princesa Sofia. Finishing 6th there wasn’t our best event but we were not too disappointed really, we sailed very well in the opening rounds and although the quarter finals did not go our way we learnt a lot from the week so can’t really complain.

Since then it has be back home sweet home for the week. A ‘week off’ doesn’t seem to really exist any more, there is always plenty to do including a trip to Ipswich with Team Volvo for Live to see the kids at Alton Water – awesome to see so many out sailing during the Easter holidays.

I also did a spot of team building with the rest of Skandia Team GBR trying to improve my clay pigeon shooting skills and Annie, Kate and I had a fantastic night down at the Royal Motor YC in Poole this Saturday where once again we were taken aback by the amount of local support we have. Thank you to everyone who turned up, it really does mean a huge amount to us.

As I said, now we are in sunny Weymouth ready for a weeks training before heading out on Friday to Hyeres for our next event, the Semaine Olympique Française. We have an American and Russian team to train against this week, forecast is looking fruity at times but generally good so fingers crossed it will be a good week!

Keep you posted,

Lucy x

Since racing in Miami in January at the  Olympic Classes Regatta, Annie, Kate and I have been training in Cadiz, Spain. It’s amazing how much we were looking forward to going training after racing so much at the Worlds in Perth and then in Miami. We have had a great few weeks out here and still have three more weeks training before our next racing in Palma in April.  There is nothing in particular we desperately feel we need to work on in this period, it’s more a case of having time look at different aspects of our racing be it tactics, boat handling, speed or fitness and looking at where we can improve and how we can build on our current strengths.

This week we have our American training partners here and we have been having some great sessions in big swell and decent breeze and in the session before we had a good mix of British training partners to sail against, all bringing different skills and ideas to the training. It is this time of the year we are really grateful to everyone that has supported our campaign. The generosity of individuals that have supported our campaign has allowed us to set up this training and really try and push the boundaries and learn as much as possible before racing season starts again. So, a big thank you to all!

Although we have moved south a bit for the winter, we are still needing to keep the fire going in the evenings to keep the house we have nice and cosy so I’m back to fire tending for now and will update soon (Maurice is the real master of the fires though!).

Check out the video below which explains a little more about what each of us gets up to on the race course…

Lucy

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)