GBR Match Race Girls

A disappointing day for us at Skandia Sail for Gold today. After going 2–0 down yesterday in the start of our quarter final races, we came out ready to give it our all today knowing how crucial every move we made would be. We started the day with two easy wins extending all the way round the course and feeling confident going into the deciding final race. With two breezes battling it out all day we had some pretty crazy conditions at times and the final race of our quarter finals took 3 attempts to finally get a full race.

Our start was looking good until a slight misjudgement by me meant we had to tack and not take the full bias off the line. We gained all the way upwind and ended up giving Anna a penalty but not being in a particularly good position. With a really close downwind Anna was able to take her penalty and still come out ahead. Despite pushing hard the whole way round and after countless tacks and gybes we were unable to pass and finished half a length behind to lose 3–2 down and placing us into the 5th–8th play-off… gutted!

Having sailed so well today and come back when it was all against us it is a disappointing end to our regatta. In the two races to decide places 5th–8th we sailed well and finished both ahead by some margin, but unfortunately we were fighting for the wrong places by then!

The semi finals followed our quarters and tomorrow Leroy (FRA) will race Souter (AUS) in the final and the petite final will be Groeneveld (NED) against Tunnicliffe (USA).

Overall in terms of how we have been sailing we are very pleased, however unfortunately this time the result has not represented that and at the end of the day that’s what counts but there is plenty to take away from the regatta, reflect and improve on, so that in 2 years time we are fighting for the medals!

Thanks for the support, Lucy x

Big day for us today at the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta, we started our quarter finals against Anna Tunnicliffe’s team (USA) and after a couple of penalties and very shifty conditions we finished 2–0 down but were also given a 3/4 point deduction for a collision. This would mean we would have to win 4 races rather than three tomorrow to win our quarters.

However after a session in the protest room this evening, the damage that our point deduction was given for was proven not to be as a result of our incident, and so the 3/4 point penalty has been reversed.

So we need three straight wins tomorrow to go through to the semis… bring it on!

Lucy

After the late finish last night we were out first today to complete our first round robin and I’m pleased to say we scored another win this time against Tunnicliffe (USA) to maintain our 100% record and qualify for the gold fleet and quarter finals.

A little wait onshore then we were back out for the first three races of the gold fleet against Groeneveld (NED), Tunnicliffe (USA) and Barkow (USA). All very close races in really tricky conditions so we were pleased to finish with two wins against the Americans and one loss.

Tomorrow we’ll have two more races to finish the gold fleet then will start the quarter finals, so fingers crossed!

There’s pretty good coverage on the skandiasailforgoldregatta.co.uk website, serving a combination of twitter updates, on-line radio, GPS tracking and a live video stream, so there’s plenty to keep you entertained!

Lucy

In contrast to yesterday, a very long day for us today! It’s 22.30 and we’ve only just got home, washed and fed after a long day of waiting around. Delays due to a lack of wind, then too much wind, combined with minor breakages meant that Group B didn’t finish their round robin until late afternoon.

At about 5pm we were sent out and have been racing this evening, however despite the race committee’s best efforts at  20.30 the breeze finally died (having had 0–30 knots throughout the day) and we were unable to complete the final race of our round robin. In the races we did manage to sail, against the Spanish, Russians and French, we won all three to secure our spot in the gold fleet along with Tunnicliffe who we will race tomorrow morning.

Great feeling for us to qualify for the quarter finals, we are sailing well and feel there is plenty left in the tank.

For now though, time for bed!

Lucy x