European Champions!

Sunday 14th September, 2008

My biggest thanks for this week in St Quay has to go to my crew, Ally Martin, Imogen Wellington and Holly King. With the four of us having never sailed together before and Ally doing bow for just her second event after the Nationals, it is fair to say we had a bit to do! With 10 teams competing from 7 Nations racing was close in the double round robin stages with only the French team of Anne-Claire Le Berre making a break at the front. Our round robbing stage did not go so well however with us learning to sail together and a few boat handling errors we finished a disappointing 7th but knew as a team we had come a long way and were now much better prepared to go forward.

Thursday saw us begin to excel in lighter breeze of only 5knots. The draw put us against Christelle Philippe in the best of 5 quarter-final. After winning the first start we cruised through our races winning 3–0 and progressing us through to the semi-finals against Lotte Meldgard Pedersen. The semis saw another strong performance by our team, again winning 3–0 from the best of 5 series.

It was a brilliant feeling knowing we were through to the finals specially having worked so hard and having come so far as a team to get there. We also knew that the journey was far from over and we’d be disappointed if we just came away with second. Sure enough the journey was far from over and we were in for a thrilling five race final against the Italian team skippered by Sabrina Gurioli.

During the first race it remained light winds and after an equal start we held slightly more speed to gain the lead and extend throughout the race to win. 1–0 Macgregor. Sabrina pulled back however in the 2nd and 3rd races after poor starts by me. 1–2 Gurioli. The pressure was now mounting, knowing that one slip up could give Sabrina the race win and overall title in a building sea breeze. After another equal start in the 4th race and what seemed like a never ending tacking duel where Imogen, Ally and Holly put in a simply brilliant effort, we managed to give Sabrina a penalty at the final windward mark giving us a slight advantage. A better hoist from Sabrina put us equal going down the final run and all our focus was on not getting ‘hooked’ and getting a penalty ourselves. After a couple of huge swerves and near misses we were able to regain control and surf to the finish to put the scores equal and everything depending on the final race. 2–2 back to square one. The decider race and the breeze had now built to 15knots with chop and certainly, tensions were high! During the pre-start we got into circles with Sabrina and with 2knots of tide running through the course the big decision was when to break out of the circles and head for the start line. After a great call from Ally we broke first and had a great start with a solid cover on Sabrina. Although the Italians kept the pressure on we were able to keep cover, stick to basics and stay between the opposition and the finish line to cross the line first and as 2008 European Champions!

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