SOF: Day 2 Went 6-0; Advance To The Gold Fleet

April 26, 2010
Hyeres, France

It was another good day for Team Tunnicliffe at the Semaine Olympique Francaise here in Hyeres, France. After sitting around waiting for the wind to fill in, the first group of the day finally got out to complete their three scheduled races before our group got in the boats to race. We had four races left in our round, and we won them all, taking our record to 6-0 and winning our round robin group. With this win, we advance to the gold group where we will race for seedings for the quarter-finals.

A Taste of Yesterday's Close Racing

Photo: (c) Guillaume Durand, April 2010

Our races today were in a shifty, 4-7kt breeze. It was quite challenging to keep the shifts in check, especially on the start line. With the laylines changing all the time, Debbie's job was really hard and she had to be totally vigilant. But she got them all spot on today. We were really focusing on our boat speed also today, after we struggled with it a bit yesterday. We came in feeling much better about both our overall speed and tactics on the course.

Some Of The Fleet Leaving Harbor As The Wind Fills In

Photo: (c) Debbie Capozzi, April 2010

Our closest race today was with Claire Leroy from France. We started just to leeward of her on the start line at the gun. She tacked away and took the right. When we came together, we ducked her and passed through to the right. The next time we came together we were clear ahead and tacked on her. She tacked away and came back at us where we went in to a fake tack. Both boats got pretty slow in the maneuver, but we came out of it with a bit more speed and controlled her to the layline. From there we took a couple boat length lead and held it for the rest of the race.

The sea breeze was really late today in filling in and Group C didn't get to do their three scheduled races. The wind was actually dying on all the fleets during our last race which made for some really, really tense moments. As we rounded the top mark for the second time in our final race to then head for the finish line, I looked downwind and saw a huge 'hole' below the finish line. The whole way down this final leg, not only were we watching the sails, our competition, etc, but we could see the hole creeping its way up the course towards us. The only remaining pressure was the puff that we were sailing in, and we were sailing right along the edge of it all the way down. Our only plan to finish the race was to gain as much momentum as possible during the leg and hope that we would have enough to coast to the finish line ahead of the other boat. Because they were behind us, they had a bit more of the breeze and always maintained a bit more speed than us, but we played it correctly and crossed ahead of them at the critical time, finishing first.

Tomorrow's forecast is again for light winds, but hopefully the sea breeze will fill in quickly and we can get in some racing. Group C will finish their races first tomorrow, then the boats that finished 3rd and 4th in each group will race in the repecharge. They will do three races and then the gold fleet will do three races. You can check the results at the regatta website. (Click on the match racing link at the top and open the pdf file when prompted.)

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 USSTAG for their continued support.

Sail Hard,

Anna
Team Tunnicliffe