Another Even Day In Calpe (Day 2)

May 6, 2010
Calpe, Spain

It was a beautiful day for sailing today and Team Tunnicliffe ended the day with a 5-5 record. We finished the round robin today in 6th, in a 8-12kt sea breeze that gave the fleet shifty conditions and kept the racing close. Tomorrow, we will start the quarter-finals against Spain's Cameselle in a first-to-three points round.

Pre-Start Manoeuvres

Photo: (c) Real Club Nautica Calpe Photostream, May 2010

In the first race today, we had a bit of bad luck when just after the start gun my tiller broke off the boat...not just the extension, the whole tiller. In the prestart I had noticed that the tiller was lying a bit low because I couldn't turn as hard as I wanted to, and so at go, I reached down, grabbed it and tried to pull it up, and it all fell off. Unfortunately, the other boat got a bit of a head start as we were over the line as well. We managed to jury-rig something, and managed to catch back up to them by the second windward mark, but then couldn't quite get by them on the downwind leg.

Mary Hoists The Kite

Photo: (c) Real Club Nautica Calpe Photostream, May 2010

Because the boat was broken, the organizing authority had to reorganize the rotation to work with only seven boats. We sat around for about an hour while other boats raced, then we finally got racing again. We won our next two races, and despite leading the entire way around the course, we lost the last race in the last half of the final leg. It was a close finish, and as always, a great race against Claire Leroy from France.

You can check the results at the regatta website.

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