moving up?
I’m on the internet at the sailing center during the 4th day of racing for the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta in Weymouth. With 24 match racing teams from 19 countries, we were initially split into 3 groups of 8 based on world rankings. The good news is after the first three days of racing (including quite a windy cold front on Tuesday that meant no racing for our group) we won our group C with a 5-1 record, which meant we advanced straight to the Gold Round Robin and automatically have a spot in the quarterfinals.
The better news is that from there on the Gold Round Robin is sort of practice racing against the best teams, with our place determining our seeding for the quarters, but nothing else. Which was important as both we and the other American team both went 0-3 yesterday in the first races of the Gold Round Robin! While we lost the first race from the starting line on, the second two races were much closer battles, both of which we led at the first top mark to be passed at some point on the downwind run. We’ve definitely learned from those mistakes and are unlikely to make them again!
This morning we went out and raced the final two races of the Gold Round, and with a win against Claire Leroy’s team we then faced our USSTAG teammates in the final race, in the 5th vs. 6th duel. Unfortunately for us, with a very shifty northwesterly we wanted the right off the line and Anna’s team wanted the left, and they called it right and led at the top mark and for the rest of the race. Which means we are seeded 6th headed into the Quarters, which will begin this afternoon in about an hour. We’re not quite sure who our opponents will be, as there was a 3-way tie for second, but we’ll probably be racing either Claire Leroy or Renee Groeneveld-who was in our original C Group.
The forecast is for it to continue getting stronger and remain unsteady throughout the day, which makes for some very interesting match racing. The shifts were quite short and sharp this morning, so there’s a lot of tacking up the windward leg and gybing down the run, and you have to stay in phase if at all possible, but at the risk or letting your opponent split from you. Tricky stuff!!!
The racing is being tracked live on the website here, along with replays and live radio commentary, and they sometimes also have live video and commentary on our course on the front page. Results can be found there as well.
Enjoy!
Genny Tulloch
getsailing.org
