Credit: Sander van der Borch
Credit: Richard Langdon
Credit: Jesús Renedo
Credit: Lloyd Images
Credit: Lloyd Images
Credit: Lloyd Images
Credit: onEdition
Credit: Toby Melville
Credit: Richard Langdon
Wednesday 16th September, 2009
With winds blowing again this morning, at times even stronger than they were yesterday, all racing on the Women’s Match Racing course has been postponed for the day. The organising authority hopes to complete the round-robin stages tomorrow, and then review the programme for Friday/Saturday — probably straight into quarter finals.
Tuesday 15th September, 2009
Strong winds have hampered proceedings during the second day of Sail for Gold, with only four flights achieved on the match racing course today. Gusts of up to 35 knots kept us inside Portland Harbour, which gave some shelter, but still provided many exciting moments! The conditions were certainly testing for both the crews and the fleet of new Elliott 6m yachts, which seem to be holding up well.
Group B were first out on the water today, and completed three matches, bringing them up to 6 out of the 7 races needed to complete the round-robin. After some delay waiting for the conditions to moderate, Group C was sent out where we were able to complete one match before all remaining races were postponed until tomorrow, leaving Group A with a frustrating day spent ashore.
In the one match we did manage to complete today, we faced our fellow British team of Mary Rook, Bethan Carden, and my younger sister Kate Macgregor, which we’re pleased to have won while sailing in some pretty difficult conditions. We’re leading our group as the only team with four wins our of four so far, however the competition is now behind schedule and tomorrow’s forecast is for similar conditions. If the organising authority decides to eliminate any of the planned stages then this would put further emphasis on finishing in one of the top two spots in each round-robin group to progress through to the next round. Either way, we’re happy with our performance so far, and look forward to hopefully less waiting and more action on the water tomorrow!
Lucy
Monday 14th September, 2009
The Skandia “Sail for Gold” regatta began today, the first Olympic Regatta to be held for all classes at the newly completed 2012 sailing venue in Weymouth, UK. It is also the last stage of the ISAF Sailing World Cup, in which Annie, Ally and I already have an unassailable lead in the new Women’s Match Racing discipline.
A top field of 24 teams from around the world have congregated at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, including 7 of the world top 10, all keen to gain experience in the new Elliott 6m boats at the venue for the 2012 games. We’ve been split into three round-robin groups of 8 competitors, with each group sailing 3 flights today in a fresh North-easterly breeze which provided exciting racing for all.
Following on from our win at the Grade 2 international warm-up event here last week, we’re pleased to have continued the clean sheet by wining all three of our matches today, against the French team skippered by Anne le Helley, Denmark’s Trine Abrahamsen and one our fellow British teams lead by Katie Archer.
Check out the full results and keep up-to-date with proceedings on the event website, which also offers live internet radio from the event.
Thursday 10th September, 2009
Sorry for the lack of updates, but the good news is that its been another fantastic few days for us in Weymouth. With Ally back from illness the three of us competed against 11 other of the the top international teams in a three day warm up event for Sail for Gold, and are delighted to have finished the event winning overall with a clean sheet!
After some exciting, close races on day 1 during the round robin, we made life a little easier for ourselves on day 2 winning our remaining round robin races with a bit of a gap and qualifying through to the quarter finals. Here we faced Julie Bossard’s team (FRA) and won our first two races comfortably. Day three saw a different day with a shifty NE breeze and a race committee very eager to get races in. Our final race of the quarters went well putting us through to the semis against Katie Spithill’s team (AUS). Despite close pre-starts and some pressure downwind on the first race, we sailed well to win 2–0 and go through to the finals against the NED team helmed by Renne Groeneveld. We knew the Dutch would be quick and sure enough even though we won the starts well, in both races of the finals we had them breathing down our necks the whole race. However, we managed to successfully hold them off, winning the second race by less than half a length to take the finals by 2–0 and the overall title.
Going into this regatta, the result was not too important to us, we just wanted to use it to learn as much as possible in preparation for Skandia Sail for Gold. But to win the event, and to do it having not dropped a single race, we now feel really confident going into the racing next week. We’ve now spent a couple of weeks training and one week racing (admittedly all in good breeze) in the boats, and although sleep is high on the list of things to do right now, we are really looking forward to racing next week! The new Elliotts are holding up to the challenge very well so far, and have produced some high quality close racing. However, next week with 24 teams racing in 8 Elliotts at the newly completed Olympic venue will be the true test… bring it on!
Lucy x
