GBR Match Race Girls

It is hard to believe it is 2011 already; it only seems like last month that we were preparing for the Miami Olympic Classes regatta in January 2010.  It has been a busy year for us all with many ups and downs but with a fantastic result to finish on.

The season started with a silver medal in the first world cup series event in Miami, this was a great way to start the season however also showed we needed to make the most of the forthcoming training.   After Miami we based ourselves in Palma, Mallorca for training where we brought in different coaches and training partners, a huge leap forward before the main season commenced.  The next two World cup events were in Palma and Hyeres, where, unfortunately we ended up with a 5^th and 4^th but were still showing a lot of potential.

In June the RYA chose to mix and match teams, with the match race squad reducing in numbers and some crews changing.  One of those changes was Ally leaving our team and Kate, Lucy’s younger sister, joining the team.  Although this was a difficult change at the time, it did happen very smoothly and we are delighted to say, after following her Engineering degree, Ally has settled into a fantastic new job with a lot of potential.  While having to juggle both university and sailing, Kate is working extremely hard but fitting in really well and the three of us are really enjoying working together.

The summer was busy with events, including the European championships where we achieved a Silver medal and a Bronze medal at the Stena Match Cup, Sweden.  One of the bigger events of the year was the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta in the Olympic venue, Weymouth.  Although we were a new team at the time we were feeling good in the running up to the event and were hoping to medal.  The first 2 rounds went well for us until we reached the quarter finals where we were up against the American team, we managed to fight back after being 2-0 down to 2-2, then unfortunately lost the deciding race meaning we did not make it through to the semi finals.  In the following round we were back on form and ended up 5^th overall but were definitely disappointed with our week.

Most classes would have had time off after their busy summer however we were straight back into it with the World Championships just around the corner!

For the worlds the Sonar was used instead of our Elliott 6ms, meaning we had a lot to learn about the boats in the 2 weeks training we did.  We had two great weeks training in Sheboygan, USA and Cowes, giving us a good feeling going into the regatta which was at the end of September in Newport, Rhode Island.  The conditions for the week were tricky but it was great for racing.  We sailed through the opening rounds very smoothly and made it to the semi finals against two times World Champion Claire Leroy from France.  The semi finals was extremely close we were 2-1 ahead in the series but behind in the race with a penalty going round the final windward mark.  Getting rid of a penalty on the final leg is never easy especially against a team like the French.  We managed to get back into the lead making sure that the French were ‘hooked’ to windward of us, this meant we were able to sail them up the course allowing us to get our penalty in, set the spinnaker and finish ahead giving us our place in the finals.  The finals were against another two times World Champion, Sally Barkow from the USA.  Once again the racing was very close.  Each match finished with the boats no more that 2 boat lengths apart, in the final race we managed to give Sally and her team a Penalty pre start allowing us to have our best start of the week 2 lengths ahead of her allowing us to extend and finish the event as World Champions!

We have recently returned back from a cross country skiing camp in Font Romeu in the Pyrenees, along with our physiologist, physiotherapist and 10 other sailors.  Whilst the UK had lots of snow, we unfortunately didn’t have enough to go cross country skiing so did 3 days of 5 hour hikes as well as a lot of indoor games and swimming.  It was a fantastic week for our fitness as well as being good fun despite the blisters.  After our various delays in Barcelona airport due to the snow in the UK we all went to Birmingham for the Sports Personality of the Year Awards.  Being around so many talented athletes was an amazing experience and very inspirational. It was also a great party to finish the year with!

Now we have a couple of weeks off over Christmas before beginning 2011 with a visit to the boat show where Annie and Lucy will be doing talks on the 8^th and 9^th. Then we will be back out to Miami to start the 2011 World Cup Series and into some training before the main events begin. Our aim for 2011 is to gain qualification for the Olympics. We’re on track so far and we’ll do everything we can to stay there!

Thank you for all your support this year, it means a great deal to us.  We hope your had a Merry Christmas and have a very Happy and Successful New Year!

From

The GBR Match Race Girls.