GBR Match Race Girls » ISAF Sailing World Cup

Hoping for breeze on day 4

Lucy — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:18:40 +0000

With very little breeze yesterday we only got 7 flights in on the match racing course so the organisers are starting to get quite tight on schedule to fit all the racing in. In the Gold fleet we managed to get just three flights in, and unfortunately they were not such good ones for us! The number of boats passing our course throughout the day is making the water extremely choppy for us and that turned three even starts in to losses for us.

Currently the repechage group are out finishing their round robin, then the silver fleet will be on before we’re out to finish our gold fleet round robin and begin the quarter finals.

Let’s hope for a little more breeze today, I’m sure the 470s and Stars that haven’t raced for 2 days will be!

Lucy x

Update: after another long day on the water, we’re 2–1 up in our Quarter Final. Follow all the action on the final day tomorrow at the Kieler Woche website with live GPS tracking.

Day 2 in Kiel

Ian — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:44:00 +0000

Day 2 in Kiel brought some rain, not much wind, and lots of chop! Several classes didn’t get any racing in at all.

But we survived, 3–1 today so through to gold fleet with 6 wins out of 7. We’re 2nd in our group behind Anna Tunnicliffe (USA), who we lost to on final run… agh!

Tomorrow we shall sail the gold fleet, to determine seeding for the quarter finals, but the forecast is sadly once again looking very light…

Day 1 in Kiel

Lucy — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:57:25 +0000

It’s an early finish for us on day 1 of Kiel week as our group (A) were on first this morning for the start of our round robin. In 14–20 knots offshore – very gusty and shifty conditions we were pleased (and relieved!) to finish the day with 3 wins out of 3 against the Chinese, Greek and other British team.

Tomorrow our group will be out second and we’ll be aiming for some more wins against some tough competition to finish the group in the top two to qualify straight through to the quarter finals… we’ll also be hoping for some more sun and the breeze to stay up!

Lucy x

Still #1

Lucy — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 22:25:09 +0000

The latest ISAF World Rankings have just been released and I’m pleased to say Annie, Ally and I are still holding the top spot!

After having Nicky Muller stand in for the the last regatta in Holland, we have been reunited with Annie this week and are having a really productive week training in Weymouth. On Monday and Tuesday Annie hadn’t quite made it back so Ally and I were joined by guest star Charlotte Lawrence for a bit of time and distance work then Annie joined us yesterday and we’ve had some good boat handling sessions with a great mix of breeze. Unfortunately for me today I took a little swim while doing a tacking exercise, the toe strap disappearing before me at just the wrong time! Tomorrow we’ll be out again then we’ll be starting preparations for our next World Cup event in Kiel, Germany starting at the end of next week.

I can hear the rain starting outside…lets hope that fades before tomorrows training!

Lucy 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