GBR Match Race Girls

Today we sailed the first four matches in our defence of our World Championship title, coming away with three wins and one loss which is quite pleasing given the conditions we had. It was a tricky day today – even when we were a couple of boat lengths ahead, the races were never over, you were always having to look behind you.

Light and shifty winds prevailed all day, with the legendary “Freemantle Doctor” see breeze failing to materialise once again. Our first match was against the Spanish crew, helmed by Silvia Roca, followed by a second win over Denmark’s Trine Abrahmsen.

Our third match was against the host nation’s Olivia Price, after a close pre-start we were in control but both of us were just over the line. As we both went back back we had to dip the Australians and so set off on the back foot up the first beat. It was pretty frustrating as it was a wacky, shifty race to the point where we had a 180 degree wind shift with our spinnaker up on the second beat and finished upwind… so that was a bad race really in terms of the course, but not too disappointing and I suspect that everyone will have a race a bit like that at some stage.

Racing in the inner harbour is an interesting choice of venue, as it’s still a fully operational commercial dock… we have to keep stopping to let container ships go by! But there’s a really good atmosphere ashore with a grandstand and tenting to keep the spectators out of the baking sun, the racing is super close so everyone’s getting an amazing view and the crowds have been out in force.

At the moment the biggest challenge for us is the heat, and it is a really dry heat. We had a tacking duel in the first race and I think we all felt quite dead after that. There is a lot of chop from pleasure bots and the venue is tight so it does change the game and probably makes it harder for the people who are normally dominant to stay as dominant. But it is the same for everyone and overall – three wins and one loss – it was a good day for us, and as long as you win more than you lose I think you are doing well with the conditions.

Our fourth match was another win against Anna Kjellberg’s Swedish team, but the two matches scheduled for us this afternoon against Croatia and Peru were postponed as the wind disappeared so we’ll resume those on Tuesday as Group A are back out tomorrow.

Tomorrow staying out of the sun will be our main aim, we’re finding it pretty hot out here so making sure we stay hydrated and active is important so that we are ready for when we go back out there. There is a lot of racing still to do and if the conditions stay like they have been there is going to be a long battle ahead.

They’re broadcasting a half-hourly daily show on TV summarising the days events, and as this weekend it’s only been the Women’s Match Racing there’s a lot of good coverage. Check out today’s episode below, though unfortunately the match they feature of us is the only we lost, typical!

You can keep up to date with the results on matchracingresults.com and the Perth 2011 event website. Check back on Tuesday when we’ll be sailing again in Group B.

Lucy, Annie and Kate x

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The Match Race Girls will start their round robin tomorrow… stay tuned!

The time has come, today is the start of the 2011 World Championships here in Perth and we’re ready to try and defend our title! The Match Racing kicks the event off today then other classes start on Monday with the others following on next week. In true Match Racing style we take both weeks to complete our regatta! The fleet of 29 boats is split into two groups for this event so there will be two round robins before qualification for the quarters begin. For this event I’m pleased to say we are in group B which means today Annie, Kate and I will have the opportunity to watch some of the racing and get a feel for the race officials, boats and race course. Because we are in the main port for our racing we haven’t been allowed to race in the area yet, instead we have had to train up the river from The Royal Freshwater Yacht Club.

Video below taken last night as we passed through the racing area on our way from Freshwater down to Freemantle

Rather than send boats out here to train in we decided to charter the dutch boats and we had a really good week of training with a practice regatta in the middle which we won, yey! Prizes were awarded by the USA team and were boomerangs!

We managed one day off in the middle of it all and paid a quick visit to Penguin Island which I LOVED, also got in a spot of shopping of course!

Generally its quite windy out here but the forecast is looking a little lighter over the next few days in true ‘It’s not normally like this’ fashion. We will keep you posted though with results and stories along the way.

Lucy x