GBR Match Race Girls » Delta Lloyd OCR

Number 1 in The World!

Lucy — Wed, 18 May 2011 17:58:14 +0000

Exciting news today that the latest World Rankings have been released which sees the Match Race Girls go back up to Number 1!

This week we have had a good 3 days training in Weymouth with some up-and-coming Kiwi guys who are in Europe for the Match race tour this summer. They have had a lot of experience in the Elliotts so they were able to whip us into shape a bit in the 15knots we had most of the week.

Tomorrow we are loading two of our boats to go and be used for the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Holland, however we will not be competing there because we have chosen to focus on Weymouth and the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta which takes place at the being of June.

After tomorrow we have a few days off to play with our new Volvo, thanks to Team Volvo for Life, then we’re back to Weymouth to play with our pair of brand new boats! (suggestions for names anyone?!)

Stay tuned…

Kate x

Silver medal at the Delta Lloyd Regatta

Ian — Sun, 30 May 2010 17:07:59 +0000

Lucy, Nicky and Ally took silver today at the Delta Lloyd OCR in Medemblik, Holland. After defeating Greece’s Sofia Bekatorou 3–0 in the semi-finals, the GBR Match Race Girls faced Anne-Claire Le Berre of France in a hotly contested final which went to the the full 5 matches.

Having started on the back foot going 0–2 down, the GBR girls fought back using all of their match racing experience and employing some aggressive tactics to bring it back to 2–2. In the last winner-takes-all deciding match Team Macgregor were ahead, but alas it was not to be as Anne-Claire Le Berre picked up some extra breeze to take the win and the overall title. GBR 2nd, Echegoyen (SPA) 3rd, Bekatorou (GRE) 4th.

More from the girls soon… or check out the full video coverage of the finals (01:28:54)

Into the semis

Lucy — Sat, 29 May 2010 18:39:08 +0000

A long day for us today but the good news is we’re through to the semi finals for the Delta Lloyd Regatta. Our first two races this morning were to finish the gold fleet round robin (the seeding round for the quarter finals) and two more wins put us through in first place carrying 5 wins out of 5. A long wait while the silver and bronze fleet races were finished saw the breeze go round in circles and up and down like a yo yo and funnily enough we were not looking forward to going on next! Once our turn came however the breeze settled down a bit in both direction and speed, giving us good conditions for our best of five series against the Australian team helmed by Nicky Souter.

The first two races were very close with us behind to start with but then taking the lead on first run in both races and gaining from there. In the second we gave ourselves a bit of a head start by getting a penalty against them prestart and leading off the line to finish 3–0 ahead. There was a slight pause in our sail in while the Aussies protested the race committee however that was soon dismissed.

Tomorrow we’ll have the semi finals where we will face Sofia Bekatorou of Greece, and then hopefully the finals! The other semi is Tamara Echegoyen (Spain) -vs- Anne-Claire Le Berre (France).

Looking forward to tomorrow, there may well be live GPS tracking and/or video on the event website, and updates on twitter.

Lucy x

Just the three on day three

Lucy — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:25:12 +0000

Although we put our wet wetsuits back on this afternoon and went to support Mary Rook’s team in the repecharge, we ended up not racing again. Tomorrow we’ll be on first for the end of our gold fleet round robin and then into the quarter finals.

Stay tuned… follow the updates on twitter or check out the Delta Lloyd Regatta website.

3 out of 3 in Gold fleet

Ally — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:12:26 +0000

Today’s schedule of 3 repechage races, 3 gold races and 3 silver races here at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Medemblik, Holland, has been helped along by nicely by a 14–18 knot north-westerly, the first decent breeze we’ve had in the last three events.

This morning we kept a clean sheet after defeating Ekatrina Skudina (RUS), Anna Kjellberg (SWE) and Sofia Bekatorou (GRE) in conditions we’ve been looking forward to since the European regatta season started! We’re currently leading the gold group round-robin as the only team on three wins, and are waiting to go and sail our final two gold fleet races.

Ally x

Through to Gold fleet after day 2

Lucy — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:02:22 +0000

The breeze did not cooperate quite as well as yesterday here at the Delta Lloyd Regatta today. A long wait in the middle of the day meant many fleets didn’t get any racing in, however we were ‘lucky’ enough to get two races in this morning and our final race of the round robin later this afternoon in light and tricky conditions. Group C were sailing well into the evening, but now everyone has completed the first round robin.

Today our two wins against the teams of Silvia Roca (Spain) and Julie Bossard (France) and one loss against Anna Kjellberg (Sweden) has left us tied at the top of Group A, and although we’ve finished 2nd in our group on the tie-break more importantly it is enough to put us through to the gold fleet and a guaranteed place in the quarter finals. While Annie is umpiring in Sardina at the Louis Vuitton, Ally and I are working hard with Nicky getting used to sailing with each other so the gold fleet racing will be a perfect opportunity to refine some of that before the quarter final knock-out rounds.

Looking like a bit more breeze tomorrow, hope so at least!

Lucy x

A long but successful first day in Holland.

Lucy — Wed, 26 May 2010 20:01:36 +0000

4/4 wins for us on day 1 at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Holland.

Ally, Nicky and I are in Group A so were on first this morning on a very shifty and choppy course. Despite a few shaky moments where we were trying to get used to sailing together, we were pleased to finish with three straight wins in tricky conditions. However just when we thought we were done for the day at midday, an announcement was made that they would try and get us out again after the other two groups, so after a few hours wait and time for the breeze to build to about 15 knots we were out again to race the Brazilian team.

An even start led to a drag race to the windward mark and them just getting room on us for the rounding. A poor bear away from them allowed us inside on the hoist but we were not close enough to prevent them gybing at us on starboard so we had to match them and avoid their luff. Within a couple of lengths we were able to break the overlap and eventually had the slightly risky (but right!) option to gybe across them on port. Once reaching into the leeward mark clear ahead, we had a good drop and sailed away from there!

Tomorrow we’ll be on second to finish our round robin, its still close in all the groups so we’ll keep you posted!

Lucy x

All change for the week in Holland

Lucy — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:36:10 +0000

Ally and I are just coming to the end of our first day in Holland where we’ve been practising today ready for racing starting tomorrow in the next round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup at the Delta Lloyd Regatta. Bit of a change this week though as Annie is not with us and instead we have Nicky Muller stepping in to the middle of the boat for the week.

While Annie is off ‘observing’ as part of the Umpire team at the Louis Vuitton Regatta in Sardina — a fantastic opportunity again to be on board with some of the most experienced match racers in the World — it gives Ally and I a chance to work on some of our more personal goals and in particular the communication between us.

It is another good line up for the fourth ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta here in Medemblik, Holland and we’re looking forward to the start of racing tomorrow!

Lucy x

Video from Delta Lloyd

Ian — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:16:51 +0000

Even though the racing finished on Sunday, the media team at the Delta Lloyd Regatta have been hard at work this week collating photographs and editing video footage.

They’ve produced the following coverage of the 5th and deciding match of the finals between the British and German teams, tied on two wins apiece before this winner takes all showdown, and subsequent on-the-dock interview with the winning skipper Lucy Macgregor.

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Team Lucy Macgregor on the news

Ian — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:55:09 +0000

The British Match Racing Team of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Ally Martin were featured on this evening’s BBC News in the following round-up of the Delta Lloyd Regatta.