Rigging The Elliott 6m
Photo: (c) Nico Martinez, March 2010
After we got in the boat, we warmed up and got used to the conditions. It didn't take long for the race committee to get started and we were the first race of the flight so we had to be game-on immediately. This was fine though, because it gave us no time to get nervous, and just focused us on the racing. Our first race was against Mary Rook from GBR. We had a great start against her and led her around the whole course. She was right on our tail at the leeward mark, but she had a bit of spinnaker trouble and we extended our lead to take the win.
Our second race was a similar story against a Spanish team. The girls sailed very fast which meant we had to sail pretty much perfectly to hold them off. The next race was again against a Spanish team, but this time, we made a mistake on the downwind leg, and got passed. We were able to sail smart and fast on the second upwind leg, gain back the lead and just hold them off to the finish.
The last race of the day was against the Greek team. We beat them off the line, but then immediately made a mistake and it put us behind by about 2.5 boat lengths at the top mark. Downwind, we sailed very well and fast and managed to pass by getting over the top of them coming into the bottom mark. Although we got over them, however, they were still pinning us out past the layline. Because we had passed them and reestablished the overlap on them, they had to sail to the mark. They drew a penalty because they didn't do this, and then a second one because they didn't give us mark room. With two penalties in hand, the rules say that they have to spin one of them immediately. They didn't see the second flag so didn't and after the umpires had given them plenty of time to take their penalty, they gave them a black flag which disqualified them from that race.
The wind was dying at this point so we were happy to hand the boats over to group C to race. At the time of writing, they are trying to complete their races in very light winds. Tomorrow we are again the second group to race, with group C starting the day. The forecast is for a bit more wind which is good, because it makes for slightly better match racing. We have three races left in our round against the other top seeded sailors.
The results are posted on the regatta website here (follow the link and then download the pdf file), and live reports are posted on the regatta Twitter page.
We would like to thank Carmeuse for their continued support of our campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London. We would also to thank USSTAG for their support.
Sail Hard, Anna - Team Tunnicliffe
