GBR Match Race Girls

Friday saw the end of a great week of racing for us match racers at the Rolex Miami OCR. One hundred and thirty something races run by the committee, twenty-seven of which we raced and twenty-one of which we won… all resulting in a bronze medal for Annie, Ally and myself.

Friday began with light winds for our semi final races against Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen (DEN) and her team. After two close starts in the first two races Lotte won an initial advantage that we were unable come back from in the light and choppy conditions. Going into the third ‘must win’ race we controlled the last part of the start but were given a red flag penalty for infringing Lotte at start time. Luckily we completed our penalty gybe and ducked Lotte to win the right hand, favoured side of the race course. Unfortunately though, having gained a strong position with the girls calling our gains and losses against the other team it became very clear we were beginning the loose… quickly! It turns out that we had managed to get a forest of weed stuck on our keel, I’m fairly sure I’ve never been so slow in an SB3 in my life!

So unfortunately we missed out on a place in the finals but did go on to win our petite-finals 2–0 against Genevieve Tulloch (USA). As the front came through, bringing much more wind, Lotte went on to win the event against Giulia Conti’s team in a 5 match final, winning the final deciding race by less than half a meter!

Overall it’s been a great couple of weeks. It has been the first time just Annie, Ally and I have sailed together, the first time I’ve had any match racing coaching and the first Women’s Match Racing event in an Olympic Classes Regatta. The event was a real success, the race committee and club were fantastic, and there seems to be a very strong desire by the sailors to make match racing in the Olympics one of the best sailing disciplines.

Finally, but by no means least, thanks to Jenkins Marine for their support for this event and especially to Hortensia and Bob for putting up with us staying in their home with them in Key Biscayne this week!

After a nervous half hour of 0 knots, the breeze stayed in long enough this afternoon to complete the second round robin ready for the semi finals and finals tomorrow.

This morning seems a long time ago! We had a slightly frustrating day in the end, even though we still won all but three of our 22 round robin matches. Short courses meant the start was everything today, and sure enough the starts we won we extended our lead to comfortable wins. However, in the starts we didn’t win, we had a little more to do! Luckily we’ve put a lot of work this week into our pre start communication linked with our timing and tactics and it feels like everyday we are making great progress for the future… and for tomorrow!

Finishing second after the double round robin to the Italian team helmed by Giulia Conti puts us up against the current third placed team of Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen (DEN) while Conti is matched up against Genevieve Tulloch’s team (USA). The semi finals and finals are scheduled to be best of 5 races and the forecast is showing a bit of wind for the afternoon, perhaps reaching 20–25 knots so the racing should certainly be exciting!

SailGroove focused their coverage of the Rolex Miami OCR today on the Women’s Match Racing. Having gone undefeated for the first three days, they managed to whip out the cameras just in time to record our first loss against Giulia Conti!