GBR Match Race Girls

Unfortunately our 4 wins out of 5 races today was not quite enough to put us through to the gold fleet today at the world championships.

We ended up on the same points as Leroy (FRA) and Mulder (NED) however although we beat Leroy in the final race, and all of the 5 highest ranked competitors, the tie break did not go our way so we ended up 3rd in Group B. Only the top two from each group progress directly to the seeding round for the quarters.

So we will begin the repechage tomorrow, where 3rd to 10th from each of the first two round robin groups will sail in another 16 boat round robin to determine the final 4 quarter finalists. It’ll probably be going on for the next three days, so time to start it all again!

While it’s a bit disappointing to have missed out on the gold group on count-back, sailing in the repechage will actually give us a lot more time on the water as we’ll do something like 10 more matches than if we were in gold. Our goal is on the Olympics, and being here in Perth is expensive so in a way it’s better we’re out on the water making the most of the racing rather than waiting in the hotel. We will now definitely race all of the teams that are likely to qualify for the Olympics so that’s a big plus.

We’re off to start with tomorrow morning then on for 7 races in a row, its going to be long week!

Keep up to date with the results and the daily TV summaries are available YouTube.

Lucy

After getting just one flight of match racing completed yesterday before the thunderstorms and near gale conditions rolled in, Group B were back out on the water today with a lot on to catch up. The first flight was away at 10am, and the final matches of the day were finishing as the sun set.

We had another pretty good day, winning three of our four matches. In the morning we had light and very shifty breeze, first up we were against Petra Kliba (CRO) before inflicting a pre start penalty against Tania Zimmermann (PER) in our second. So a good morning, 2–0 up and a break until mid afternoon.

Our closest match of the day by far was against Renee Groeneveld (NED) in which we didn’t have a great start and set off slightly behind giving them the all important covering position. The sea breeze had finally materialised, though not quite as strong as outside the harbour, pretty gusty and probably averaging about 17kts. Because of the direction and confines of sailing in the docks, the course was even shorter than usual and extended to three laps making it all a bit crazy! We managed to keep it close, despite our match getting tangled up with the others on the course, and made great gains down wind on the final run. A photo finish, and an agonising pause as the committee boat decided which flag to raise indicating the winner… though sadly it was not to be and the win went to NED.

We finished off the day with a win against Genny Tulloch (USA). Day off tomorrow while Group A race, before finishing our group on Friday. Top two from each group go through to the quarter finals, looks like it’ll be close in both groups!

Yesterdays video report doesn’t feature much sailing, but has an interesting piece on the two AUS match racing teams.

Cheers,

Lucy

We were supposed to sail another four matches out of the 10 flights scheduled at the ISAF World Championships, however the weather had different ideas!

Unlike our first day of racing, plagued by a lack of wind, and yesterday’s perfect conditions where Group A got in a full 10 flights, today we were met with ominously dark skies and a forecast which in the words of the race committee “isn’t looking good”! The first flight was completed in a gusty 17kts, but all further matches were postponed and the match racers sent back to harbour late morning due to the worsening weather — winds over 30 kts, heavy rain, and electrical activity likely to produce lightning storms. None of the other classes managed any races today, with all racing cancelled early afternoon.

So after suffering 35+ degree temperatures over the last week we’ve spent today waiting while sheltering from the downpours, a bit of hail, and some pretty impressive thunder and lightning… I thought the point of coming half way round the world was to leave all the cold and wet behind back home! Anyway, we’d better make the most of it, so heading off to explore Perth in the rain…

Yesterday’s video round-up focusses on the Women’s RS:X windsurfer and Men’s 470 class, with our Skandia Team GBR team mates putting in strong performances.

We were originally due to alternate with Group A again tomorrow, but as we’re now quite behind in the schedule the race committee has decided that we’ll be on again to try and catch up with the Group B round robin, so stay tuned and see how we fair tomorrow :)

Cheers,

Lucy, Annie & Kate x