Slowing momentum during pre-start manoeuvres. Image copyright Fried Elliott/www.friedbits.com
by Anna Tunnicliffe
It was another hot day on the Chesapeake today for the second day of racing at the Boat US Santa Maria Cup. Our team finished today with a 10-1 record to be on top at the end of the day. Right behind us are Sally Barkow and Genny Tulloch from the USA and Claire Leroy from France.
The wind took a while to fill in this morning as the north westerly gradient fought hard to come in. Eventually, it gave in to the sea breeze and we moved the race course out towards the mouth of the Severn River. The breeze filled in nicely to about 13kts and racing got underway. Later in the day, a line of storms came through to the south of us and made the wind go a bit funny, but the race committee did a great job of adjusting for it and keeping the races going. But eventually, the storms won out as the next line approached and we were forced to return to shore.
We had some great races today against the top seeded teams. Our loss of the day went to Sally, and it was a silly mistake by me. We were over the line early at the start and had to return which put us quite a bit behind. Despite sailing fast and catching up to about three boat lengths behind, we ran out of race course and it wasn't quite enough. Our closest race of the day was against Claire. We led all the way around the course, but she was never more than a boat length or two behind.
Tomorrow morning we will continue round robin racing to complete the second round. From there the semi final teams will be decided and if there is time, we may start racing the semi's tomorrow afternoon.
Team Tunnicliffe
US Boat Santa Maria Cup
