Friday 4 June 2010

5-0 After Day One, Santa Maria Cup for Team Tunnicliffe




Team Tunnicliffe Pre-Start Gybing. Image copyright Fried Elliott/www.friedbits.com

by Anna Tunnicliffe

After a couple hours delay waiting for the wind to fill in, the sea breeze finally graced us with its presence and we had five great races to start the Boat US Santa Maria Cup. We finished a very hot day of sailing 5-0, and have four more races tomorrow to finish the first round.

Our team sailed very well today, leading at every mark. It was a bit tricky with the current and the wind, but the girls up front did a great job of figuring it out and telling us where to go. At the beginning of the day, we had a couple of pre-starts that ended up upwind of the line for a while as the current dragged us up there in dial ups. It was a little unnerving but great practice for our world championships which will be sailed in similar current.

There are ten teams racing from four countries. Other teams that did well today are Sally Barkow (USA) 5-0, Claire Leroy (FRA) 4-1, Genny Tulloch (USA) 4-1.

Before we even got to the club, Molly and I had a great workout with Harry, Annapolis Sailing Fitness. We met Harry at the gym at 6:30 am and worked our legs and abs hard. It felt good to get in a good workout before the day of sailing, especially as it turned out to be so hot on the water. Tomorrow morning we will be back at 6:30am for more. Then we will head to the yacht club for an 8am briefing and a 9am start. The forecast for tomorrow is for a bit better breeze but thunderstorms. We're hoping that the storms hold off until we are finished racing.

Team Tunnicliffe
Santa Maria Cup