GBR Match Race Girls

Day 1 of Women’s Busan Match Race has certainly been an exciting one with some pretty crazy shifts and puffs the whole day, certainly in our last two races today!

For Annie and I it is our third time back to Korea and once again they have put of a great show with a load ois sponsors and loads of supporters and a really good mix of competition from all over the World. As Kate is at the University World Championships this week (and currently winning) Annie and I are sailing with Jody Slater, Josie Gibson and Ally Martin. Jody has joined us a couple of the events in the bigger boats and is trimming the jib, Josie who we have pulled out of Match Racing retirement (as she used to helm very successfully on the circuit herself), is being kept very busy in the pit area and Ally who it is great to be sailing with again is in charge of the bow which is all a bit new but slightly easier now they have changed from asymmetric to symmetrical spinnakers.

Today was the first day of the round robin stage and we ended on 4 wins and 1 loss which after the size of shifts we had today is certainly a result to be pleased with! The final two races against the Danish and Australians were our closest with the lead changing dramatically a few times, once massively in our favour and once not so much! I believe the conditions are likely to stay quite similar so I’m sure there is still some tricky racing to come. Tomorrow we will be continuing on with the round robin from which we will go into quarter finals.

News just in from Korea is that the girls have won the overall title :)

Having lost the first match in the finals against Sally Barkow, Team Lucy Macgregor then went on to win the next three in a row to take the title 3–1. Congratulations for not only a great result against top international competition, but also in achieving this with the quite remarkable consistency of conceding defeat in only one match throughout the entire event.

More to follow I’m sure…

After some more shifty racing today we finished the round robin in 1st place after winning all of our races. The highlight was winning against world number 1 ranked Claire Leroy after ripping our spinnaker in two at the first windward mark. We held our nerve and extended enough to defend downwind.

Following the completion of the round robin the race committee went on to complete the semi-finals which we won 3-0 against Anne-Claire Le Berre and her French team. Tomorrow sees us racing the first-to-3-point final against American Sally Barkow and her all British crew, including Lucy’s usual crew member Annie Lush.

The whole team are delighted with our progress so far, with more left in the tank for tomorrow.

An early night now ready for some competitive racing tomorrow!

Nicky and the Team. xxx

Hello from Korea! We’re here again for the Busan Women’s Match, where having won the inaugural event last year crewing for Sally Barkow, we’re here this year for a crack at the title in our own right :)

With top international teams competing from 8 different nations, including the more local Korean and Japanese teams, the Busan Women’s Match is a great event to come to and something of a different experience from the European events! Joining me this time is Ally Martin, Jody Slater and both my sisters, Nicky and Kate, on the 30ft asymmetric K30 boats, designed specifically for this event.

Unfortunately we’ve been struggling to find internet connection here, but online now so here’s a quick recap so far…

The round-robin stages started on Saturday, however the wind failed to materialise in the morning when our group was scheduled to be out, so no racing for us. As a result we were first out yesterday, confidently winning 5 out of 5 matches. Today has been another successful day, though with racing taking place as close into the beach as possible for all the spectators it is a tricky race area, with the wind disrupted by hi-rise buildings on the shore. This was especially noticable today when we had anywhere from 10-20 knots combined with frequent, random, 40 degree shifts hitting us with very little warning! However we were pleased to win another 3 matches today against the Dutch, Finnish and Japanese teams, so after the third day of racing we’re looking strong with straight wins so far in the first round robin stage. We have only 3 more races to complete in the round robin tomorrow morning, against 3 of the higher ranked teams.

Forecast is for a little less wind tomorrow, so hopefully we will all finish the round robin stages. Due to the uncooperative weather on Saturday it is likely the organisers will go straight to a semi-final knock out stage then the finals on Wednesday, the final day of the event, so we’re aiming to continue our good form and secure a top 4 position in the round robin tomorrow to go through to the semis.

We’ll try and keep you posted!

Lucy x