All starts today

Saturday 3rd December, 2011

The time has come, today is the start of the 2011 World Championships here in Perth and we’re ready to try and defend our title! The Match Racing kicks the event off today then other classes start on Monday with the others following on next week. In true Match Racing style we take both weeks to complete our regatta! The fleet of 29 boats is split into two groups for this event so there will be two round robins before qualification for the quarters begin. For this event I’m pleased to say we are in group B which means today Annie, Kate and I will have the opportunity to watch some of the racing and get a feel for the race officials, boats and race course. Because we are in the main port for our racing we haven’t been allowed to race in the area yet, instead we have had to train up the river from The Royal Freshwater Yacht Club.

Video below taken last night as we passed through the racing area on our way from Freshwater down to Freemantle

Rather than send boats out here to train in we decided to charter the dutch boats and we had a really good week of training with a practice regatta in the middle which we won, yey! Prizes were awarded by the USA team and were boomerangs!

We managed one day off in the middle of it all and paid a quick visit to Penguin Island which I LOVED, also got in a spot of shopping of course!

Generally its quite windy out here but the forecast is looking a little lighter over the next few days in true ‘It’s not normally like this’ fashion. We will keep you posted though with results and stories along the way.

Lucy x

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Changing climates

Monday 21st November, 2011

Within The space of just a few days we are going to be experiencing completely different climates this week! This weekend at Queen Mary Reservoir we had a disappointing weekend only getting to race 4 races in the UK Open National Finals due to no wind and thick fog yesterday but tomorrow morning we fly to Perth and will step off the plane in 37 degrees centigrade and 20 knots of wind, sometimes I think we lead a very strange life!

Unfortunately the lack of breeze this weekend meant the first round robin was not completed so results were messed up a little as people had raced a completely different number of races. Pleased to say though that Nick Cherry took the trophy home and although we were on the same number of losses, we ended up 3rd.

I have a feeling our next event in Perth, Australia is going to be a very different experience! 32 teams, country selection and The World Championships….It is going to be great so keep checking back here for details. We head out tomorrow for a week of training then racing starts on the 3rd December.

Lucy x

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As December approaches…

Thursday 17th November, 2011

Recently it has been a busy few weeks for Annie, Kate and I in the run up to our World Championships taking place in Perth over the first two weeks of December.  After the announcement of our selection to the 2012 Olympic Team there was no rest, one week training in Weymouth followed by winning an event in St Quay, France. Then a week off before heading to Weymouth again then here we are now in Spain, just south of Barcelona training with the Russian team.  We had a short break after the Pre-Olympic event in Weymouth in August but now we are very much into full swing until the Olympics next year and time seems to be going far too quickly!

This period before Christmas is quite a tricky one to know what to do in terms of training. Having the World Championships in the usual ‘off season’ time confuses things a bit so we are training with the end goal of the Olympics in mind while of course trying also to prepare as well as possible for the Worlds. Then after racing in Miami in January we will have our last few months training where we are able to make the last big (and hopefully important) gains before it is Games time already.

Since we only race against one other team at a time in Match Racing, the training can also often be quite intense and this week has certainly been no exception. We have a good relationship with the Russian team having trained with them quite a lot in the past but (and they won’t mind me saying this) it is always an amusing time as it is often quite surreal one way or another. As an example last time we trained with them in Weymouth, we meet up on the first day and there is the helm, middle, bow then not too surprisingly a spare crew but more surprisingly they have no coach but a Doctor with them! We then see them the following week in St Quay and there is not one but two coaches added to the group. Last week we then turned up in a very small town in Spain to train with the girls again and the party has grown even more to include another spare crew, a fitness instructor, the very important Mum to help cook and an umpire! For two teams of usually six sailors we now have fifteen people from six different Nationalities, it just shows how differently you can about the same task of trying to win a gold medal in London 2012!

Annie, Kate and I are really excited about the next eight months, excited and also a bit nervous of how much we want to get done in what seems like so little time. We have fantastic support now though from so many different areas whether its family, sponsors, everyone locally or the rest of Skandia Team GBR and Team Volvo for Life we really hope and believe we can deliver to everyone next year in a simply once in a lifetime opportunity.  Watch this space!

Keeping following us here at matchracegirls.com, on Twitter @matchracegirls and facebook.com/matchracegirls

Lucy, Annie and Kate x

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Busy busy busy…

Friday 28th October, 2011

Over the last few weeks we’ve been keeping ourselves busy in Weymouth, Poole, Weymouth, France, London, Weymouth and Spain!

Two weekends ago the South West Shingles YC, a select invitation-only group of esteemed yachtsmen and seafarers who have all experienced notable calamities afloat, kindly organised their annual regatta and end of season dinner in the form of a fund-raising event to support our Olympic Campaign. After a busy afternoon of seven short sharp races in a fleet of J24s from Parkstone YC the members and their guests enjoyed an entertaining dinner at the Royal Motor YC during which a raffle and auction was held. We’re hugely grateful to SWSYC Commodore David Latchford for not only organising the event, but encouraging so many local businesses, individuals and organisations to so generously donate a wide variety of items for the raffle and auction, ranging from fine wines and restaurant vouchers to sailing, rugby, flying and shooting days, and a number of artistic works including the star lot an original oil painting by Duncan Macgregor (no relation!). Much fun was had by all, and the level of support was really quite overwhelming. Many many thanks to all who came and contributed to raising a significant sum, which will go a long way to help cover some of our costs in the run up to the Games.

Last week we were in France at a grade 1 event in Saint Quay Portrieux, on the North Brittany coast. Fourteen top women’s teams took part in a pretty packed schedule, starting with a single full round robin over the first three days. Conditions were fairly light, and we put in some pretty long days on the water, however our efforts were rewarded by finishing second in the round robin on 9 wins and 4 losses. Proceeding directly to the quarter finals, we dispatched Rita Gonçalves (POR) 3–0, before facing Anne-Claire Le Berre (FRA) in the semi-finals which we again convincingly won 3–0. In the finals we were up against our long-term rivals, the French team of Claire Leroy who have been one of the most dominant competitors over the years. Racing was nip and tuck throughout, we had a strong start going 2–0 up, before they clawed it back to 2–2. In the deciding final match we came away with the all important win to take the overall title :)

This week we’ve not been on the water, but catching up with the never-ending admin and gym work. On Tuesday Lucy and Kate joined fellow Team Volvo for Life sailors Ben Ainslie, Paul Goodison and Nick Dempsey at Apple’s London store on Regent Street for the launch of the new Volvo Sailing App. Available on iTunes for the iPhone and iPad, the new app combines the latest news and events, a basic guide to Olympic Sailing for non-sailors, and top tips from the experts for those looking to improve their sailing techniques.

Meanwhile Annie has been putting our brand new V70 to good use, towing a RIB down to Barcelona where we’ll be training against the Russian team for ten days. Check out our facebook page for photos of Annie’s trip including crossing the Millau Viaduct. Many thanks to Volvo Cars UK for their continued support, they’ve also just re-launched the VolvoCarsSailing.co.uk website which is well worth a visit.

Next week we’ll all be in Weymouth again, for a detailed review of our performance in the last quarter with all the coaching, technical and support staff. Fitness tests here we come! Then off to catch some sun in Barcelona… :)

We’ll leave you with this little promo tape of the TVfL sailors selected for the 2012 Games.

Cheers,

Lucy, Annie and Kate x

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