GBR Match Race Girls

It has been a month now since our Elliott’s had their first dip in the water down at the Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy and since then Ally, Annie and myself haven’t stopped! A weeks hard training getting used to the boats as much as possible led in to the National Championships (and my third National title). It was then straight into the the International event where we did not lose a single race for the whole event. Next up was the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, the first true test of Elliott 6ms, in the Olympic Venue and with all the top Match Races and ex-Yngling sailors. Here we were delighted to go through to the finals after an epic day of quarter finals against the Australians (which went to 4 races and then a re-sail), then semi finals against the French World #1 team (which went to 5 matches). However new conditions on Saturday for the finals against the Dutch team saw us disappointed to only manage the Silver medal loosing the finals 2-1. It’s hard to feel happy with a Silver when your gunning for the gold but we realise the three events for us have been fantastic and put us in a very strong position going into our winters training.

After finish racing on Saturday, it was straight into the winters programme at 09.00 on Monday morning! Having competed in 11 International and more Domestic events since January, its time for us to focus on some training at last! Up to Christmas we’ll be based down in Weymouth working with a squad of other British teams. Our main focus for the period will be getting used to the boats in both the boat handling and speed sense, not focusing on Match Racing tactics too much for now. Included in our programme will be plenty of land based fitness training (bring on the hiking bench!) and we’ll be looking to do some fundraising to ensure we can complete a World Class training programme. We’ll hope to finish this period of training with a test in Melbourne, Australia for the first round of next years ISAF World Cup Series.

Finally a quick thank you to all our supporters over the last 8 months, watching us from rocks, on the TV, or on the internet and a huge thank you to the local buisnesses for their support including Jenkins Marine and Quay Sails.

Back to Weymouth for us on Monday morning…think of us as it gets colder!

Keep sailing!

Lucy x

After a couple of hours wait for wind, racing finally got underway in Portland harbour for our finals against the Dutch. Placed closein the south west corner of the harbour in a fickle sea breeze racing was tricky, close and frustrating! Unfortunatley after winning the first race, we lost the second so it was all on the third and last race. A great start where we controlled the Dutch and gave them a penalty led to a good position up the first beat until we were the wrong side of a shift at the top. Gains downwind gave us a great position up the second beat until again we lost in a header with no options allowing the Dutch to take their penalty and control the top of the final run, passing us and finally winning by a length at the finish.

Despite today’s frustrations losing the finals, Annie, Ally and I have had a great week, and put in a really solid performance. Our silver this week at Skandia Sail for Gold stretched our lead in the final standings of the ISAF World Cup Series and shows the strength of our team.

For now sleep, but more to follow tomorrow!

Lucy

This morning we completed our quarter-final contest, dispatching Lucinda Whitty (AUS) 3–1, progressing us through to the semi-finals. Here we faced the formidable team of Claire Leroy (FRA), who have led the world rankings for something like the last four years. After three matches it was do or die at 2–1 down, but we hung on in there to bring it level at 2–2 and the all important deciding match. After another epic battle we’ve turned the tables at last and defeated the French, winning the semi 3–2. Tomorrow we will face Renee Groeneveld (NED) in the final.

Sorry for the short update, we’re exhausted, though we have high hopes for tomorrow! The organisers have really gone to town with the “medal race” day tomorrow, so do try and follow the action on TV, radio, or online :)