GBR Match Race Girls » Palma

Team Volvo for life

Ian — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:59:12 +0000

Press Release:
Volvo Car UK Introduce Match Race Girls to Team Volvo for life sponsorship

Download

Today we’re delighted to announce that the Match Race Girls are being supported by Volvo Car UK as part of Team Volvo for life.

We are really excited to be working with Volvo Car UK again. Having worked together in our previous campaign with Shirley Robertson we know how valuable their support is and feel this is a massive boost for us in our quest for Olympic success in Weymouth 2012.

Read the full press release, and check out the gallery of fab pics from our recent photo shoot!

Lucy, Annie and Kate x

7th at Princess Sofia Regatta

Lucy — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 07:52:40 +0000

Well for the first event together in the Elliott for 8 months, it has been a good event for us this week. In terms of final result we are a little disappointed after loosing the quarter finals 2-3 to Sally Barkow (USA) however there are a lot areas which we have been training where we saw a big improvement in our sailing and when everything comes together we’ll be in good shape.

Today we head back home for some time off this week then we are back to Weymouth to start our training there before Hyeres. Hope it has warmed up a bit back there ;).

Lucy

All even in quarters

Lucy — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:57:24 +0000

A long long day for us today at the Princess Sofia OCR, finally getting off the water at 8pm even though we only sailed 4 races!

After the final gold fleet round robin races, we were seeded against Barkow’s American team for the quarter finals. The series is first to three wins and today we broke even with the Americans at one win apiece so there is all to play for tomorrow!

In the other quarter finals, Tunnicliffe (USA) leads Hazard (NZL) 2–0, Leroy (FRA) is even at 1–1 with Le Berre (FRA), and Lehtinen (FIN) leads Hahalbrock (GER) 2–0.

Lucy

Now the buisness begins!

Lucy — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:30:11 +0000

We’re going into day 4 of the Princess Sofia Trophy today and are aware that the the big races are just round the corner now. This morning, after the last two races of the repechage we will go out on the water to race in our final two races of the gold fleet to seed us for the quarter finals. Then this afternoon the race committee hope to run two of the quarter final races before completion tomorrow.

At the moment its looking a bit glassy out on the water so we’re hoping the sea breeze kicks in sooner than later to get the day underway.

Wish us luck!

Lucy

Through to quarter finals after day 2

Lucy — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:28:22 +0000

A solid day for us today at the Princess Sofia OCR our Sperrys and Oakleys helping us win two out of three races put us second in our group overall and therefore won us a ticket through to the quarter finals.

After swapping into the boats we had a short wait while the sea breeze formed and then we were first start against the Danish team. A strong start put us into a really good position to be able to lead the race from start to finish by a good margin….a great start to the day. Next up we had two crucial matches against the French and American teams. Against the French we were in control for the whole start sequence and with 45 seconds to go managed to put a penalty against them. By now the chop had started to build and tacking became quite expensive so the tacking duel which formed wasn’t much fun and even less fun was us getting a penalty for placing a tack a bit too close! However, we were still in the lead and seemed quite quick so managed to gain ourselves a bit of space and take the win. Our final race of the day against the Americans was the closest of the day in the end. We led off the line and maintained a slim advantage up the first beat and run however a slip knot in the spinnaker haliyard at the bottom mark meant they were able to take the favoured right hand side. We kept then under pressure the whole beat and very nearly regained the lead at the final windward mark however in the end they were able to slow us and get the better spinnaker set, and ultimately the win.

By finishing second in our group we are through to the quarter finals but firstly, tomorrow we will race in the gold fleet to seed us for the quarters.

Wish us luck!

Lucy x

Day 2 highlights are available on youtube, featuring some of the action from Group B

Princess Sofia — Day 1

Ian — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:15:44 +0000

The first day of the 42nd “Trofeo Princesa Sofia” regatta brought big breeze for all competitors. With some classes postponed ashore, the Women’s Match Racing started on time and completed a full schedule of racing today.

We have been drawn in round-robin Group C, so had a long wait ashore while the other two groups each completed three matches. It was mid afternoon before we took to the water, winning out opening matches against Abbott (CAN) and Zimmermann (PER). We then lost our third match against Hazard (NZL), before finishing the day at 3–1 with a win against Kjellberg (SWE).

Check out the video below summarising the first day of the regatta, featuring some opening footage of the match racing in Group A.

Forecast for tomorrow is for much less breeze, hopefully we’ll get the full schedule in and complete the first round-robin stage.

Lucy

Ready to race

Lucy — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:32:03 +0000

We are now coming towards the end of our week training in Palma, and the conditions have been fantastic. We have been training with one of the American teams and by slowly building up the amount of racing each day we are now feeling good about going racing next week. Today we will have our last day of training in our boats before sending them home in a container tomorrow. We will then have the official practice on Sunday and start racing on Monday… can’t wait!

Keep checking back for updates, or follow the action on the Princess Sofia OCR website

Lucy

The European season is fast approaching…

Lucy — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 19:18:07 +0000

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

Gorgeous day ‘in the office’

Lucy — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 21:54:48 +0000

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

Our second home, Palma

Lucy — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:30:16 +0000

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