Anna Tunnicliffe's Team Maclaren at Delta Lloyd Regatta. Image copyright Sander van der Borch/www.sandervanderborch.com
by Anna Tunnicliffe
Team Maclaren won the Bronze medal at the 2011 Delta Lloyd Regatta. We swept the petit-finals 2-0 over Team Wang from China this morning in a shifty, puffy two races.
We awoke this morning expecting very windy conditions given yesterday's forecast, but were pleasently surprised to find 12-17kts on the course. We headed out for a 10:30 start.
Wang Ru (CHN) finished fourth at Delta Lloyd Regatta - and recently qualified for the EUROSAF match racing in Helsinki. Image copyright Sander van der Borch/www.sandervanderborch.com
The first race was pretty uneventful after we forced them over the line early. Race two was a little closer. We started to windward of them heading out to the left. We fought a few knocks before we had to tack away. By now, port was the long tack and we were to leeward slightly bow out. As we headed up the course, we started to get a right angle and managed to tack back at them and get across them.
We controlled them into the top mark and rounded a length ahead. Shortly after the rounding, I slipped and dropped the tiller causing us to round up and broach. The Chinese team gybed away while we got back under control. We caught a nice puff downwind and managed to catch back up to them. They gybed to windward of us which allowed us to control them into the bottom mark. We opened our lead upwind to a couple of lengths and went on to finish with the win and the bronze medal.
Team Maclaren at Delta Lloyd Regatta. Image copyright Sander van der Borch/www.sandervanderborch.com
We are happy with how we sailed. The team did a great job with the conditions. Next we head to Weymouth for some training before the next leg of the ISAF World Cup, the Sail for Gold regatta which starts June 5th.
Comments from Anna Tunnicliffe
Anna Tunnicliffe-Funk. Image copyright Amory Ross/USSailing.
SailRaceWin caught up with Anna Tunnicliffe after the Delta Lloyd Regatta and commented on the Chinese girls' improvement this year, as well as asking Anna about the US Sailing Team's prospects in Womens Match Racing in the lead-up to the Olympics.
Anna Tunnicliffe:
"The Chinese team sailed a very good regatta. They have been putting a lot of time into their training with great coaches and their hard work is paying off. This is the second time that we have sailed them, given the way the rotations work at events.
"We have three very strong US teams. I think this is very powerful because it makes us keep pushing hard so that whichever team wins the trials does have a great chance of medaling at the Games."
SailRaceWin agrees that in-house competition can indeed be very valuable in the lead-up to the Olympics. However, it is often better to make selections from performance at international events, to avoid concentration on out-doing the home competition at the expense of the international sailors whom the successful Trialist is likely to encounter at the Olympic Games. The US Women, however, are all at the top of the game, and a force to be reckoned with at every Womens Match Racing event in which they compete.
Womens Match Racing, Delta Lloyd Regatta. Image copyright Sander van der Borch/www.sandervanderborch.com
Anna Tunnicliffe
Team Maclaren
Delta Lloyd Regatta
