Welcome!
The GBR Match Race Girls are one of the top International Women's Match Racing Teams and are determined to represent Great Britain in this exciting new Olympic sailing discipline in 2012. Having gained National and European championship titles, and rapidly risen through the ranks to lead the World Rankings, Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Ally Martin are a promising prospect for the future of British Sailing.
Since learning to sail in Poole Harbour as a children, Lucy and Annie have always been a driven individuals. After a successful youth sailing career for Lucy, and gaining 'blues' in three sports at Cambridge University for Annie, they both entered a full-time Olympic campaign with Shirley Robertson for Beijing 2008. Lucy and Annie have now teamed up with Ally Martin and launched their own campaign for Gold in 2012. Catch up on the latest news below, find out more about the team, or use the menu on the right to explore this site.
Credit: Wander Roberto
Credit: Wander Roberto
Credit: Matias Capizzano
Credit: Mike Millard
Credit: Kim Wolf
Credit: Kim Wolf
Credit: Richard Langdon
Credit: Getty Images / Skandia Team GBR
Cold, wet and windy training!
Sunday 6th December, 2009
Despite the cold, rain and wind since returning from Nice we have been back to work, down at Weymouth training in the Elliotts… well we’ve tried! During our first week back the gales did halt our training, but later in the week we had some really productive sessions against the other girls and some guys we brought in to beat us up a bit!
We are now training in Weymouth over the next two weeks, then after a short Christmas break we’ll be preparing for the first event of the 2010 ISAF World Cup Series in Miami. Plus, in the mean time, we’ll be shipping the RYA Elliott 6Ms out to Palma so that the team can train out there during the spring while the freezing cold and short days take over here! So it’s a busy period of planning and preparing for 2010 and our next few months of hard training before the European season begins once more.
Video from Louis Vuitton
Friday 20th November, 2009
There are some great videos of all the action from the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice by btsbroadcast. Check out their youtube page for loads more content, or see the following two videos showing some of the knock-out stages.
Being so long and narrow you can see how quickly the bow and stern can swing round, and just how wet these boats can be! In our role as observers (positioned further back behind the camera man) clinging on was at times pretty difficult… but an amazing experience :)
Team Macgregor in Yachts and Yachting magazine
Friday 13th November, 2009
The December issue of Yachts and Yachting magazine carries an in-depth article on Lucy and her team, and the new Olympic Discipline of Women’s Match Racing.
Find out what the Match Racing circuit is all about, catch up on the girls’ progress, training and aspirations, and see the new Elliott 6m boat which has been selected for the London 2012 Olympics at Portland and Weymouth.
Y&Y is available now from all good news agents, or as an online eZine subscription.
No time to stop!
Wednesday 11th November, 2009
After our great win at the Busan Women’s Match last week there has been little time to draw breath, as I have flown straight out to Nice for the Louis Vuitton Trophy. The event is designed to keep the America’s Cup teams racing while the original event is not open to everyone has been a great success so far with eight teams racing, rotating around four boats.
I was lucky enough to be asked to join the umpire team for the event as one of the five observers. The role of the observers is to stand at the back of the racing yachts radioed up in communication with the umpires, and to call the boat’s heading and whether or not we are overlapped with the other boat in tight situations. Sounds easy right? Well it isn’t too bad until you add in the need for us to hang on for dear life as the transoms are swung on full lock by the helmsmen and the scoop fills up with water from the wave that has just passed over your head!
Our final role is to call if and when there is ever any contact between yachts, or as I had it yesterday, between stern and the committee boat (the good thing is it is generally not hard to tell because if there is contact, it’s often going to happen very close to where your standing!).
Despite the occasional fear, so far it has been an amazing experience seeing how the teams work together and operate these power houses of yachts and to see the options the afterguard take in each tactical situation — sometimes not a world apart from the Elliott 6M racing we’ll be back to at the end of the month!
The event website www.louisvuittontrophy.com has up to date information on results, and good live coverage of the racing, but I will try and keep you posted on my experiences too!
Some photos of the action below… the rather fetching fluorescent arm-bands are to help the umpires see our signals!
Lucy
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