GBR Match Race Girls » European Championships

Silver at the European Championships

Lucy — Sat, 15 May 2010 14:41:47 +0000

It seems like its been a long week here in Hard although the most racing we did was today, sailing the semi finals against Meldegaard (DEN) which went to 3–2 and then the finals against Skudina (RUS) which frustratingly ended up 3–1 and only 1ft in it on the finish of the last race.

I think its fair to say we never really made friends with these boats and today we did not really sail to the best of our ability which is disappointing in the short term but finishing second at the European Championships when we are not on form is not too bad a result!

Just about to start the prize giving then we’re straight out of here to fly home… hoping that ash cloud doesn’t get to us until tomorrow!

Lucy x

2-1 up in the quarter finals going into the final day.

Lucy — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:51:12 +0000

A strange day one way or another but we’re pleased to say we are finishing it 2–1 up in the quarter final against Sofia Bekatorou (GRE).

With a lack of breeze we drifted around for a while but were unable to complete the round today so now we are waiting to find out if they will go straight to semi finals tomorrow morning or try and finish the quarter finals first.

It could be an early start either way!

Update: Confirmed that the rest of the quarter-finals will not be sailed and our 2–1 lead will stand, so we’ll go straight into the semis tomorrow.

Quarter finals will be sailed

Ian — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:41:31 +0000

Contrary to their earlier suggestions the Race Management Committee have decided to run the quarter finals after all, and so we’ll soon be back out on the water again :)

Pairings as follows:
Ekaterina Skudina –vs– Silke Hahlbrock
Lotte Meldgaard –vs– Rita Gonçalves
Cristiana Monina –vs– Renee Groenveld
Sofia Bekatorou –vs– Lucy Macgregor

Disappointing decisions being made on day 3.

Lucy — Fri, 14 May 2010 07:52:16 +0000

At the beginning of day 3 it is not looking great for us on decisions for the schedule. Disappointingly the Race Management are wanting to go straight to semi finals rather than quarter finals first, which would be understandable except we still have two days left of the regatta so they have plenty of time left. We came here for a four day regatta not a two day regatta so we’re hoping they change their mind when group B’s round robin is completed in three flights time.

We’ll keep you posted,

Lucy

Day 2 of Euros

Lucy — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:12:12 +0000

Well the rain continued ALL day today making it a rather grey day here in Hard! After group B had finished their round robin we began our second round robin which, this time was held outside the Harbour thankfully in slightly less shifty conditions. The breeze held up for all of our session and it was going well for us with four straight wins…until the final race. After rounding the first windward mark ahead of Lotte Meldegaard’s team (DEN), on our spinnaker hoist our sheet came unclipped from the clew of the spinnaker however with another boat from another match inside us we couldn’t gybe to sort the problem and ended up being passed by Lotte…very frustrating! Although we rounded the leeward mark not too far behind we were never able to pass so ended the day with 4 wins and 1 loss.

With 7 wins and 3 losses after the two round robins we are on equal points with the Danish team but our loss to her in the final race puts her ahead of us in 2^nd and us in 3^rd. We are now hoping there is time to go to quarter finals and not straight to semi finals otherwise an unclipped spinnaker sheet will have had a huge impact on our event.

Lucy

Wind… but also rain on day 2.

Lucy — Thu, 13 May 2010 08:11:24 +0000

Here we are in the event hospitality tent ready to start racing on day two of the European Championships, and it is absolutely chucking it down with rain outside! Ally, Annie and I are on after two races in which group B will complete their first round robin. Yesterday we finished our first round robin in 2nd place with 3 wins and 2 losses, and today we will be racing the same five teams again in another round robin.

Conditions were tricky yesterday with light and very shifty winds, today we have the wind but also the rain to go with it! We struggled a bit yesterday with getting used to the boats, the boat handling of the asymmetric kite and the way they handle at low speed, but it was a common problem among the fleet and we feel we have made some good progress in our debrief. Of course it’s a new day today though with 5–10 knots more breeze so plenty more learning to do!

We’ll keep you posted,

Lucy

Update: the results show the girls winning 4 out their 5 matches today, losing only to Lotte Meldgaard (DEN). They finish the round robin 7–3, the same as Meldgaard, but today’s defeat means on the tie-break they slip to 3rd.

European Championships underway

Lucy — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:56:44 +0000

Racing is due to start at 10.00am here in Hard, Austria for the 2010 Women’s European Match Racing Championships and Ally, Annie and I are just having a cup of coffee and preparing to go out on the water.

As was the case last year, the Europeans this year is taking place alongside the Open event (nice for us to have some men around for a change!) and also like last year, the women have got the raw end of the deal with the boats we’ll be using compared to the men!

This week we’ve left the Elliott notes at home and will be starting a new page for Scholtz 22s. So far the three of us have spent just two hours in the boat which was yesterday during our allocated training slot and while we tried to find out as much as we could about them but I’m sure there is plenty more to learn! Unlike the Olympic Elliott 6m class we’ve been putting all our time into recently, the Scholtz carries an asymmetric spinnaker and is slightly more of a ‘keelboat’. I have to admit we weren’t overwhelmed with love for the boat, but there isn’t much we can do about that other than get our heads down and race and move forward as much as possible with our boat handling and speed through the early rounds.

The event will start today with a round robin series in two groups and throughout the week will move onto another round robin in our groups, followed by quarters, semis then finals on Saturday.

Hard is situated in the Austrian corner of Lake Constance and the race areas we’ll be using will be a mixture of inside the “Binnenbecken” harbour (an area no bigger than Poole Park Lake) and the other course will be outside on the main lake which will hopefully be a little less shifty!

Today we’re inside on the little lake, sailing our first round robin against Lotte Meldgaard (DEN), Renee Groeneveld (NED), Ekaterina Skudina (RUS), Petra Kliba (CRO), and Vesna Dekleva Paoli (SLO).

Wish us luck — it could be a venue where we need a little!

Lucy x

Millpond!

Lucy — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:00:52 +0000

….was the look of the racing area for most of the final day of racing for us in Middelfart today. With another postponement we finally started racing about 1.30 to continue with the quarter-final round robin however the decision was made to cut this stage at 3.00pm so they could run finals and petite finals.

Being overtaken on the finish line in 0 knots in our race today unfortunately pretty much summed up our regatta and dropped us down to a disappointing 7th overall. Its been quite a tough week with long days due to very little wind all week and because of that we haven’t always had the best racing. The race committee however have tried to deal with the conditions as best as possible and whether it was the right decision or not, they did manage to get finals in with Silke Hahlbrook’s team taking the title.

Next we’re off home for a week off and then will be getting our hands on the new Elliott 6′s at last!

For full results check out the event website.

Europeans day 3

Lucy — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:21:14 +0000

Another frustrating day in terms of conditions meant the race officials at the Europeans struggled again today to get a full day of racing in. With the first round robin finally completed around 2pm, the quarter final round robin was started in the shiftiest breeze yet.

Only 4 of the 10 flights were completed for this round today so tomorrow we will have to continue and are unlikely to have time for finals therefore every race counts for overall positions. We unfortunately had a frustrating day missing some crucial shifts but also had a great race against Ju;ie Bossard where after being given a penalty when it was meant to go to her, we were able to pass, off load our penalty and still win. Going into tomorrow we have 1 win and 2 losses but all to play for still with 4 races left.

Lets hope for some wind!

Solid day 2 at Euros

Lucy — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:03:12 +0000

With much better conditions to yesterday (even though the wind was still really shifty!) we had a great day today winning all but one of our matches. The race committee were trying their hardest to finish the round robin but although there is still racing taking place, it looks like there will be around 3 flights to finish tomorrow, of which we are just racing in 1. The top4 in each group will then advance through to the quarter finals for an 8 boat round robin.

Its good to be finishing the day knowing we’re through to the next round but we’ll still be keen to beat Julie Bossard’s French team tomorrow to get one of the top spots through.

For full results check out the event website www.m-r-d.dk, or see the following roundup of today’s action (how many times can you spot us?!)