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

The European season is fast approaching…

Monday 21st March, 2011

Annie, Kate and I are home this week taking a week away from the water but still putting the delightful hours in at the gym and doing some admin work so we are all up to date. It is hard to believe but this is our last week off before going back out to Palma for a weeks training and then the first European ISAF World Cup Regatta of the year, Princess Sofia. After the winters training, Princess Sofia is always an exciting event because the fleet is reunited and everybody’s training starts to be put to the test! Especially for us with Annie having missed out Miami Olympic Classes Regatta due to injury, we are really looking forward to going racing.

Lucy

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Tags: 2011, Elliott 6M, ISAF Sailing World Cup, Palma, Princess Sofia OCR, Rolex Miami OCR

Gorgeous day ‘in the office’

Sunday 13th February, 2011

The first day training here for us today in Palma and we couldn’t have asked for better conditions, waves, sun and 10 knots greeted us as we turned the corner out of the harbour in S’Arenal, it was b-e-a-utiful!

Today was about checking over the boat making sure everything is in working order and getting Annie back sailing for a bit, before the hard work starts tomorrow! We are expecting a little more breeze over the next few days while we are training on our own and then at the end of the week we have some boys (or should I say men!?) coming out to sail against us.

The new coach is in, our Elliotts are all set up and our apartment is slowly becoming home, so bring on the next two months training!

Lucy

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Tags: 2011, Elliott 6M, Palma

Our second home, Palma

Tuesday 8th February, 2011

Miami feels like weeks ago now and Annie is doing a good job of recovering so we are on to the next period of the winter now which is training in Palma. This morning my Dad and I finished our road trip which started from Portsmouth on Sunday night with a Brittany Ferries trip, then a drive down France to Barcelona and another ferry across last night to Palma. In tow as well as our rib we had two 470s and trust me with all that weight there was no danger of us breaking any speed limits! Today was meant to be container unloading before flying home this afternoon however unfortunately the container with our two Elliotts is delayed so I am staying out another day to hopefully unload and fly back tomorrow.

After lessons learnt in Miami, we are looking forward to getting back to training. We have a lot we want to get in done before Princess Sofia in April and believe we have the right programme with the right support to get a fair way down the to do list. There are a few changes to our campaign for 2011. A new coach will start with us on Saturday when we start training in Palma and we have a lot of exciting sponsor relationships building. In December we were delighted to team up with Oakley who provide us with fantastic glasses for performance on the water and we have a number of companies we are close to teaming up with in the run up to the Games.

For now though, back to the day to day I’m off to continuing setting up base here in Palma where not much has changed since I first came here in 2005; sea breeze still coming in at lunch time, coffee and sandwiches still excellent and many of the same friendly faces to help us in the yard and take the mick out of our attempts at speaking Spanish!

Lucy

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Tags: 2011, Brittany Ferries, Elliott 6M, Miami, Oakley, Palma

4th at The Rolex Miami OCR

Saturday 29th January, 2011

After a fantastic weeks racing at the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, the first event for us in the 2011 ISAF World Cup Series, Mary, Kate and I finished in 4th place after today’s petite final.

With a good win in the quarter finals yesterday against the New Zealand team we raced against Tunnicliffe (USA) in the semis but unfortunately didn’t beat the American’s to make it through to the finals. In today’s petite finals we raced against another American team helmed by Barkow. We won the first race by a very convincing margin and then were able to gain the lead in the second but had a penalty. In trying to rid our penalty we unfortunately got another and therefore lost the lead. It all came down to the final race in the end and it was Barkow that came out on top after winning the start and preventing us from making it up around the course.

Considering Annie’s very unfortunate accident last week and just our four hours of practice with Mary before starting this regatta, we are really pleased with the week and Kate, Annie and I can’t thank Mary enough for stepping in and doing a great job!

Lucy x