Olivia Price: in winning form. Image copyright CYCA staff.
by Pam Scrivenor and Jennifer Crooks
Olivia Price has taken a commanding lead in the Marinassess Women’s Match Racing Regatta, hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, winning all her matches today.
The regatta started slowly this morning with a hint of a north easterly breeze looking like it was going to fill in to enable racing to commence on time at 1015 but as the teams gathered on the water, the harbour glassed out and the breeze disappeared. With the sun out and no sign of breeze, it was decided to send the teams ashore until the northerly filled in again at midday.
The schedule for Day 1 of the Marinassess Women’s Match Racing Regatta was to complete one round robin and finish the day with a fleet race. This regatta is the first competition for many of the sailors who have been attending the Youth Sailing Academy Women’s Match Racing Squad on Friday evenings since October last year. This squad has several members who have been sailing on keel boats for many years and have joined up to add match racing to their sailing talents.
The three CYCA Youth Sailing Academy (YSA) teams were skippered by Amanda Scrivenor, Tara McCall and Katie Abbott. Scrivenor has been match racing with the YSA for many years and along with several other Advanced Squad match racers, comes to women’s squad to continuing match racing over the summer months but also to help teach match racing skills to many CYCA sailors.
McCall, also an Advanced Squad sailor, is skippering her first match racing regatta this weekend and Abbott has been in Australia over the last few months to continue match racing in the summer season rather than the cold waters of her home in Canada. The YSA teams finished the day with Abbott finishing in 3rd place on 3 wins, Scrivenor on 2 and McCall on 1 win.
The match between Jessica Eastwell and Olivia Price was one of the close races of the day and was the matchup between the two Australian Women’s Match Racing Teams. Price finished the day in first place at the end of round robin one with 5 wins from 5 races and Eastwell, having only lost to Price, finished the day on four wins.
Stephanie Doyle, representing Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club has brought her team to the CYCA for this regatta having recently competed in both youth regattas in New Zealand. Despite having some close races today, she was unable to get a win on the board.
Round Robin One was finished today and all six teams then competed in a fleet race. This regatta was originally established as a fleet racing regatta but has been a match racing regatta for the last six years. The inclusion of the fleet race introduces a different platform for the teams with six boats instead of two on the start line, a change in start sequence and several racing rules and most important to remember, port roundings at the marks instead of the match racing starboard roundings. Lucinda Whitty took the helm on Jessica Eastwell’s boat for this race and finished the race in first place, closely followed by Olivia Price and Amanda Scrivenor.
It is the intention of the Race Officer, Denis Thompson to continue racing tomorrow with a second round robin and semis and finals should the weather permit. Racing will resume at 1015hrs, in the vicinity of Rushcutters Bay, with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting north to north-easterly winds of 5 to 10 knots, tending east to north-easterly around midday then tending north to north-easterly 10 to 15 knots with the chance of isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon. Live results will be available on http://www.cyca.com.au/editorial.asp?key=4227 from the commencement of the round robins.
Results
DAY ONE: Saturday 12 March, 2011
Flight One
Eastwell dft Doyle
Abbott dft Scrivenor
Price dft McCall
Flight Two
Abbott dft Doyle
Price dft Eastwell
Scrivenor dft McCall
Flight Three
Price dft Abbott
Eastwell dft McCall
Scrivenor dft Doyle
Flight Four
Abbott dft McCall
Price dft Doyle
Eastwell dft Scrivenor
Flight Five
McCall dft Doyle
Eastwell dft Abbott
Price dft Scrivenor
Olivia Price signalling her intentions early for this regatta taking a clean sweep on day one with a 5-0 slate.
Summary wins-losses
Price 5-0
Eastwell 4-1
Abbott 3-2
Scrivenor 2-3
McCall 1-4
Doyle 0-5
Marinassess Women's Match Race Regatta
