Elliott 6M « GBR Match Race Girls - Women's Match Racing Olympic Campaign

Day 2

Tuesday 7th June, 2011

A tough day 2 at Sail for Gold with over 20 knots of breeze providing very lively conditions!

Today we completed the stage 1 round robin, sailing the remaining three matches in Group C. In the first, against Hahlbrock (GER) we had a good start and controlled up the beat, but unfortunately picked up a penalty on the first run. We continued to lead around the course but didn’t manage to extend enough of a lead to take the penalty so took our first loss. Race 2 saw a win over Meldgaard (DEN).

Race 3 started with a furious pre-start against Tunnicliffe (USA), from which we emerged neck-and-neck. A close race but we didn’t manage to pass, so finished on 5–2. This puts us 2nd in Group C behind Tunnicliffe, but with the all important guaranteed entry to the quarter finals which is always the aim!

We’re trying to keep tabs on the results this week at
http://www.matchracegirls.com/sail-for-gold/2011/
this page automatically loads updates so you don’t have to keep refreshing!

Tomorrow the Match Racing will be using the GPS trackers so you should also be able to watch our progress around the course — scroll down to see the match racing flights.

Off for some much needed rest, it was a full-on day today and tomorrow promises more of the same! We’ll be out to do three gold group matches, probably starting around 1pm.

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Tags: 2011, Elliott 6M, ISAF Sailing World Cup, Skandia Sail for Gold, Weymouth

Day one

Monday 6th June, 2011

Day one of Skandia Sail for Gold and Annie, Kate and I just got down to the venue. Although many of the fleets are still hanging around onshore, the Match racing started on time and now are moving onto the second group B. We are once again in group C this week so will be last on today to start our first round robin.

Breeze looks like its starting to die out again but fingers crossed we’ll get at least three of our races today. Follow the racing at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta website.

Lucy

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Tags: 2011, Elliott 6M, ISAF Sailing World Cup, Skandia Sail for Gold, Weymouth

Number 1 in The World!

Wednesday 18th May, 2011

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

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Tags: 2011, Delta Lloyd OCR, Elliott 6M, ISAF Sailing World Cup, ISAF World Ranking, Skandia Sail for Gold, Team Volvo for life

Gold!

Friday 29th April, 2011

Finals of the French Olympic Week today here in Hyeres and we won! We were once again up against Barkow’s team (USA) and this time it was a win to us, and quite a convincing one at 3-0.

Although we managed to win all three races by a good margin the racing was by no means easy today. We had a short delay for the wind to fill in a bit but then started before the easterly breeze had established so the course was very shifty and patchy. In the first race the wind was at it’s worst and we ended up with a very one sided course…luckily after a very tense first beat, we were ahead when it shifted big to the right so it made the win a touch easyier to close out. The second race was a much better course, we had quite an even start which soon after led to a dial down by Sally but it was a bit aggressive and left them with a penalty and us getting the right side of the course… from which we were able to extend to a good lead in the end but you never felt safe.

So we were 2–0 up and needed only one more win, and it came from probably our best race of the regatta. We thought the pin end of the line was favoured at start time and won it perfectly, however a big right shift came soon after and put Barkow a couple of lengths ahead on the first cross. Up the beat we were slightly stuck on the less favoured side but managed to make it work for us at the top and we were right on their heels round the first mark. Downwind was where it all came good, I think our speeds were fairly similar but we had some really good gybes and just managed to get them on starboard at the bottom before the two length zone to the mark. This meant we could hold them out at the bottom and take the lead around mark two. Annie and Kate then did a fantastic job up the next beat meaning that by the top mark we had extended our lead to eight lengths or so and had an easy run into the finish… Gold to us!

It’s been a great week for us, the areas we have been working on in training have transferred through to our racing and it feels really good on the boat. There is still plenty to improve on but to get this ISAF World Cup win is awesome especially as we were joined by so many other British girls winning medals in other classes and all the Team Volvo for Life girls medalled!

Of course we were slightly disappointed to be missing the Royal Wedding celebrations at home but don’t worry, Annie did some Blue Peter style arts and crafts and we joined in as you can see in the highlights below ;).