Debbie Pointing The Way
Photo: (c) Fried Elliott, August 2010
The racing was held in shifty, puffy conditions blowing off shore. It made for challenging calls all around the race course, but also for some tight racing. Our first race today was against the Dutch team and despite a couple of lead changes, they ended up getting the better of us at the finish. The last race of the gold round was against our USSTAG team mates, Sally Barkow and team. We led them off the line and held onto the lead around the course to finish the series with one win and the 5th seed. This paired us with the 4th seed, Lucy.
We went out this afternoon and completed two races of the quarters (a first-to-3-points series). The first race was very close. In the pre-start, Lucy got a penalty. Off the line, we won the end that we wanted and controlled her up the beat. Half way up, she tacked too close to us, dipped behind us and luffed, hitting our boat which resulted in another penalty for her. She sailed fast and used the puffy conditions to close the distance downwind and to draw us back in, but we held her off until the finish. In the second race, it was again close racing, with us leading at the top mark, her passing us downwind, but us gaining the inside overlap at the leeward mark to round ahead. Up the second beat, there was a big right shift of which we took advantage, and inspite of a late charge from MacGregor at the end of the second run, we held her off for the win.
Racing resumes tomorrow at 10am when we will complete the quarters. The racing is being tracked live online at the regatta website if you would like to watch some of the races. You can check it out here. You can also see the results posted there as well.
We would like to thank Carmeuse and Trinity Yachts for their continued support of our campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London. We would also like to thank US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) and its sponsors for their support.
Sail Hard,
Anna
Team Tunnicliffe
