Hiking Hard : Looking For Wind Shifts. Image copyright Walter Cooper, January 2010.
by Anna Tunnicliffe
Friday was a full day of racing against the Aussies to advance to the Finals at the 2010 Rolex Miami OCR. It felt like a long day of racing despite only sailing six races. Every race was very close, thanks to the shifty and puffy winds. You could never guarantee a win because the other team could get a shift and be right back in the race.
Debbie Setting The Spinnaker Pole. Image copyright Walter Cooper, January 2010.
We wrapped up the Quarter finals first thing Friday morning with a win against Lucinda Whitty, from Australia to advance to the Semi finals. After having two wins from yesterday's quarter-finals racing, we had to win one of the three scheduled races this morning. The race started with us being behind, but we pulled a fake gybe on her downwind, tricking her into gybing, which resulted in her being awarded a penalty during the subsequent luff. This happened just before the finish, so we gybed away and led to the finish line.
The next round was against Lucinda's teammate, and 2009 ISAF Women's Match Racing World Champion, Nicky Souter. We had five fantastic races with her and came out ahead in the end with a 3-2 record. We won the first two races and felt good about how things were going. But Nicky and team turned it around and handed us two losses to tie up the series. So everything came down to the last race. And what a race it was! The race started, and we had a good start at the pin end. We pinched the Aussies off and they tacked away. We got the first shift and controlled the first beat. Downwind, we made a bad tactical call and they had got around us by the leeward mark.
Dousing The Kite. Image copyright Dave Hein, January 2010.
Upwind we played the shifts corretly, managed to get our bow back in front of her, and now we could control her coming into the top mark again. This time at the top mark, we stuck to our guns, and held our course after our set. They gybed away and held their course. We gybed to match their course but kept our wind clear behind us, so it wouldn't be affected by their sail shadow. The downwind leg took a long time, with surges from both boats in the puffs. As we got closer to the line, we saw the boat end slightly favoured, but our nerves were still racing. When we crossed the line our flag went up first and our team let out a huge cheer and sigh of relief. We also got some kind words from the Aussies as well, which was great to hear.
It was a fantastic series, and we are really happy we got some good match races. Having won our Semi's, we now advance to the Finals against GBR's Lucy MacGregor. Lucy's team has gone through all the rounds undefeated, so we are definitley looking forward to some exciting racing Saturday.
Anna Tunnicliffe
Rolex Miami OCR
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