GBR Match Race Girls » 2010

Good day at the office!

Lucy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:27:23 +0000

One of those days today which made me remember why I love doing what we do! We had a great day of training in gorgeous conditions, sun and 13 knots building to 19 later on. We squeezed inside Portland Harbour (in the small spots left over from the 500 oppies) and started with some pre start exercises against Sofia Bekatorou’s team (GRE) and finished with some actioned packed racing against Sally Barkow’s team (USA).

Training again tomorrow then we have a three day Grade 2 event as a warm up to the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta, the final stop on the 2009/2010 ISAF Sailing World Cup tour.

Lucy

Perfect conditions in Weymouth

Lucy — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:17:10 +0000

Our training for our next event, Skandia Sail for Gold is well underway now and we are enjoying perfect conditions for our training in Weymouth. Annie, Kate and I have some specific areas to work on before the start of the event on the 9th August however mostly we will just be race training from now on and next weekend we have a Grade 2 regatta here to test preparations!

In the recent release of the Women’s Match Racing World Rankings we were thrilled to hold on to our no 1 spot and we are now really looking forward to racing on home waters again. Currently we are training alongside 500 optimists doing their National Championships and I don’t think WPNSA is going to get quieter any time soon!

Lucy

Invitation to Bermuda Gold Cup

Ian — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:58:16 +0000

I’m excited to announce that we have been invited to compete at the Argo Group Gold Cup, one of the most prestigious events on the men’s pro World Match Racing Tour. We’ll be heading out to Hamilton Island (Bermuda) in October to give the men a run for their money, along with the top US women’s match racing team skippered by Beijing gold medallist Anna Tunnicliffe.

Peter Shrubb, Commodore of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, explains

“The men are really going to have their hands full with these two women who are really going to add some excitement to this event. I think we could see some major upsets this year!

Macgregor has established herself as a reckoning force in women’s match racing having captured national and European titles to rapidly rise through the ranks to the top of the women’s world rankings.

We have eight of the world’s top ten men’s match racing teams and with these two women’s teams I am really looking forward to see how this whole thing pans out.”

We’ll be racing in the International One Design (IOD) class, a beautiful classic yacht from the 1930′s, though a far cry from the modern light-weight racing yachts we’re used to sailing! With a heavy displacement, large rig, and long overhangs these boats will be a challenge to sail, both physically and in adapting to the differences in their handling, especially in pre-start manoeuvres.

Nevertheless we’re extremely excited to have the opportunity to sail against the best men’s teams in the world, including fellow Skandia Team GBR member and triple gold medallist Ben Ainsle who will be returning to defend his title after wining the event last year.

Bring on the sunshine, and the competition!

Lucy

3rd at Stena Match Cup Sweden

Lucy — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:14:04 +0000

It was 3rd for us in the end yesterday at Stena Match Cup Sweden after an extremely close semi and petite finals in light and tricky conditions against Groeneveld (NED) and Spithill (AUS) respectively.

Annie, Kate and I have had a really useful week of racing in a range of conditions and against a really good field.

Now we’re waiting to watch the Men’s final (if the wind fills in) and support Ben Ainslie‘s Team Origin.

2-0 in quarters

Lucy — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:14:43 +0000

Yesterday saw the start but unfortunately not the end of our quarter finals here in Stena Match Cup Sweden, due to a lack of breeze. As winners of the round robin we had the choice of competitors for our best of 5 matches quarter final and our decision was… Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen (DEN).

Our first prestart in about 10 knots saw a slight collision between Lotte and the umpire boat, resulting in the abandonment of that match, so a bit a wait around put us a race behind compared to the other quarter final matches taking place.

The next two races for us went really smoothly, winning the race at the start and sailing safe but extending to the finish. Although the breeze had built to a good 18 knots it’s next trick was unfortunately to shift 100 degrees and die away to nothing, so a day later we are now waiting for the men to finish their quarter finals before we go out to hopefully win just one more race and qualify through to the semi finals!

In the other quarter finals Skudina (RUS) and Groeneveld (NED) both won 3-0 and local hero Kjellberg (SWE) is beating last years champion Spithill (AUS) 2-1.

Fingers crossed for the breeze to stay in today!

Lucy x

Match Cup Sweden — Day 3

Ian — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:28:39 +0000

The third day of Stena Match Cup Sweden saw the completion of the Women’s round-robin stage, once again providing close competition in glorious conditions. After 3 more races Lucy, Annie and Kate have secured the top spot on the hotly contested leader board with 6 wins.

Tomorrow afternoon the quarter finals will be held, but unlike in the ISAF Sailing World Cup at this event the top place competitors have the added benefit/agonising decision of choosing their opponents!

The following video summarises today’s action, starting with the men and then covering the women about 1/2 way though. The event website will be carrying a live video stream so you can keep up to date with all the action tomorrow through to the finals on Saturday.

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Exciting matches on day 2

Lucy — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:18:53 +0000

The breeze arrived yesterday creating two exciting matches for us on day 2 of Stena Match Cup Sweden. In our first race against Le Berre (FRA) we were given a penalty in the dial up pre start, not an easy thing to shake off in 18knots! The first beat was very close with us just behind most of the way up until the crucial last quarter where we won enough from the right to lead by a length round the windward mark. With the waves downwind it was a strong position being the boat behind but we were able to defend and keep the lead round the leeward mark too. On the next beat it was all about trying to extend enough to do our penalty and still be ahead and after covering them for the first half of the beat, two-thirds of the way up we found our opportunity. We finished our penalty still ahead but they were going to be very close for the downwind so we dialled down at them on the port layline and had a bow to bow collision course going for quite a few seconds until finally we both head up and had a small collosion with our port and thier starbourd sides of te hull. The tables had now turned and it was us leading round the windward mark with them having a penalty to get rid of in the final run. Although they caught up a bit we were able to hold them off and actually give them another penalty down the final run to finish ahead.

Our second race against Hahlbrock (GER) was just as action packed but without the penalties! After choosing the wrong start we crossed behind on the first meeting but our tacks were really strong and by half way up we were to windward of them on starboard and in control. They were not easy to shake off downwind but by the leeward rounding we were still ahead – just. On the second beat however we seemed quicker and were able to gain to be slightly more comfortable on the second run and finished the day with 2 wins from 2 races and confirming our spot in the quarter finals.

Today we are on the afternoon slot again and will go out to finish the final 3 races of our round robin, after which the winners choose their opponents for the quarterfinals…big decisions to come!

Lucy

Day 1 of Stena Match Cup Sweden

Lucy — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:31:14 +0000

55 sponsors and 13,000 sponsor hospitality visits throughout the week, Stena Match Cup Sweden has started!

It was a glorious morning of racing for us yesterday in our first 4 races of the round robin. Two of our races were very close with several penalties, winning one of them against the Dutch and losing the other against the Russian team, the other two races however were slightly easier wins for us where we clearly won the start and extended our lead from there.

Only having 10 women’s teams here makes it quite a different event from the World Cup events for us especially with the format of racing. Today we will be out this afternoon after the men have finished racing to continue with the round robin, after which we will go into quarter finals.

We’ll let you know how it goes….

Stena Match Cup Sweden

Lucy — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:54:56 +0000

Today Annie, Kate and I arrived in beautiful Marstrand ready for the start of Stena Match Cup Sweden tomorrow. The event has been running very successfully for several years alongside the men’s pro tour event, however it is the first time the women’s competition will be contested in the Elliott 6m class. With only 10 teams and 8 boats the event will be very different compared to the ISAF World Cup events, but we’re looking forward to the more ‘traditional’ match race regatta. We’ll keep you posted throughout the week.

Lucy x

Hoping for breeze on day 4

Lucy — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:18:40 +0000

With very little breeze yesterday we only got 7 flights in on the match racing course so the organisers are starting to get quite tight on schedule to fit all the racing in. In the Gold fleet we managed to get just three flights in, and unfortunately they were not such good ones for us! The number of boats passing our course throughout the day is making the water extremely choppy for us and that turned three even starts in to losses for us.

Currently the repechage group are out finishing their round robin, then the silver fleet will be on before we’re out to finish our gold fleet round robin and begin the quarter finals.

Let’s hope for a little more breeze today, I’m sure the 470s and Stars that haven’t raced for 2 days will be!

Lucy x

Update: after another long day on the water, we’re 2–1 up in our Quarter Final. Follow all the action on the final day tomorrow at the Kieler Woche website with live GPS tracking.