SOF - 2-0 On Day 1

April 25, 2010
Hyeres, France

Racing started today at the Semaine Olympique Francaise, here in Hyeres, France. It was a beautiful day in southern France with a light breeze all through the day. Team Tunnicliffe are in group A for the Match Racers, and meant that we sailed first. We had a gradient breeze of 4-6kts for our two races. We won both of the races, and had a bye in the third flight of the round due to a couple of teams not being able to make it to the event.

Hyeres, FRA Marinas And Sailing Areas

Photo: USSTAG Facebook Page

Our first race was against Denmark's Trine Abrahamsen. We didn't have a great pre-start against her, but had a clean start at the pin end of the line. She was over at the boat end, so we were able to take advantage of her mistake and went on to win the race.

Our second race was against Spain's Sylvia Roca. We controlled her in the pre-start and had a great start against her. At the bottom of the course we held an almost 5 boat length lead over her, but she is very fast and kept getting a little more breeze than we did which allowed her to pull back the five boat lengths and round right on our stern at the top mark. Downwind, we sailed very smart and kept the lead, even extending a little. Up the second beat, we saw pressure on the left, so we rounded the mark and continued to go straight. Sylvia tacked away and headed right. We split for a long time before we came back together and although we hadn't gained much, it was another boat length. Downwind again, we sailed smart and took the lead.

Team Tunnicliffe And Team Tulloch Debrief With Coach Dave Dellenbaugh

Photo: USSTAG Facebook Page

As the rest of our group sailed in the third flight, we had a bye. Only 22 of the original 24 teams made it to the event. Team China didn't make it due to air travel problems. So this left two of the three groups with only seven teams, meaning during each flight, one team sits out. Tomorrow, however, we will sail all four flights to complete the round robin. We felt like today we got some of our nerves out of the way, and are very much looking forward to four races tomorrow. You can check the regatta scores at the regatta website.

Some additional good news, which I received this morning, is that at the Lauderdale YC awards banquet last night, I was awarded the LYC 2009 Yachtswoman of the Year. It is a great honor to win this award, and I'm very sorry that I couldn't be there to accept it. It's great to have such a supportive club behind what I am/we are doing and having the ability to train at such a prime location has been a huge factor in my success.

We would like to thank Carmeuse and Trinity Yachts for their continued support of our campaign towards the 2012 Olympics in London. We would also like to thank USSTAG for their support.

Sail Hard

Anna
Team Tunnicliffe