9th Overall At The Princess Sofia Trophy

March 31, 2010
Palma, Spain

We finished racing today at the Princesa Sofia Tropheo. We finished the repecharge round in a three-way tie for second; lost one place in the tie breaker, meaning we finished 3rd in the round, which put us 9th overall in the results.

"It Is Freaking Windy!"

Photo: (c) Nico Martinez, March 2010

This morning we had two races left. We knew the results would be close, and we had to win both of our races to guarantee us advancing. We headed out in windy breeze blowing right off the shore which meant it was quite puffy.

Our first race was against Australia's Nicky Souter. We had a great pre-start and led the whole way up the beat. We rounded the windward mark ahead and went for a gybe set to try and sail towards what we thought was the next puff coming. As it turned out, it wasn't quite the next one, and Nicky, who didn't gybe managed to get around us. It was ok though, because we managed to surf back up to her and get an overlap which we hoped would lead us into the mark so we we would round ahead. We made a mistake on our boat by taking our eyes off the breeze that was coming, resulting in a broach over to windward, smothering most of the crew on the other boat with our spinnaker. It was a silly mistake that cost us and we drew an obvious penalty from it. After that, everything happened quite quickly and we got in a bit of a mess. We lost the lead and then the race.It was too bad, because we were leading the race, and lost it on one silly mistake. We were disappointed, but knew that we had to win the next race no matter what.

"And Wavy! Made For Some Awesome Surfing!"

Photo: (c) Nico Martinez, March 2010

Our last race was against Dorte Jensen from Denmark. We sailed a very good race and led the whole way around. It was a satisfying feeling to end on a good note and a well executed race. We would like to thank USSTAG coach, Dave Perry, for his help during the regatta.

We are obviously disappointed with our overall result, and we only have ourselves to blame. But we are glad that it happened at this point in the year, so that we can learn from our mistakes and not make them again. Our feeling is that if we had advanced and done better in the results, we would have brushed the errors aside/overlooked them, and not really learned from them. It is a hard way to learn, but it's good for us once in a while. We are very much looking forward to our next regatta in Hyeres France, the Semaine Olympique Francaise, which is the fourth event in the ISAF World Cup Series.

Between now and the Hyeres event, we have a week off before we head to Chicago for a week of training. After training, we have a busy four week period in which we are competing in three events. We are glad to be back sailing/racing and learning.

We would like to thank Carmeuse for their continued support of our campaign for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England. We would also like to thank USSTAG for their continued support.

Sail Hard,

Anna
Team Tunnicliffe