Knickerbocker Cup: Gearing Up for the Quarterfinals

by Anna Tunnicliffe

We wrapped up racing in the round robin today at the Knickerbocker Cup finishing 4th. We finished the day early and then waited for everyone else to finish up racing before we entered into the quaterfinals round.

The quarterfinalists were not announced initially, as it was undecided as to whether the round was going to be a 6- or 8-team quarterfinal. By the end of the round robin, the race committee decided that it would be an 8-team knockout quarterfinals. This meant that we are paired up against the number 5 seed, William Tiller from New Zealand.

The racing began in the quarters this afternoon, but our pair sat out waiting for one group to finish up before we could start (because there are only 6 boats and 8 teams).

In our three races this morning, we won 2 and lost 1. They were really good, testing races, and we were leading all of them at one point or another, but got overtaken at the leeward mark. The pre-starts were rather tricky because the wind was light and the current was against us but even so we managed to get good starts on the side of the race course we wanted and came out ahead at the top mark.

The race we lost, we led all the way down the first downwind leg until the last gybe into the mark. Our competitor had a little more speed than us and just got inside of us at the two boatlength zone at the mark. We tried to round on the outside of him but we ran out of speed. Just after we rounded we tried to fake tack and get him off our breeze, but he didn't fall for it and we stopped. We hung out by the leeward mark for about 2 minutes before we got going again, as the wind was so light. We managed to gain some boat lengths back upwind, but not enough to catch up and make a play.

We will start racing tomorrow morning after one pair finishes their first to 3 point series. You can check the results online at the regatta website. There is also live coverage of the races on www.sailgroove.org.

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.

Team Tunnicliffe
Knickerbocker Cup