1-1 In The Semis (Day 3)

May 7, 2010
Calpe, Spain

We had a lot of racing today at the XII International Women's Match Race Criterium in Calpe, Spain. We wrapped up the quarter-finals first today against Spain's Cameselle. We won that round 3-1 to advance to the semi finals. The winner of the quarters was France's Claire Leroy who got to pick who she raced in the semi's. She choose Spain's Tamara Echegoyan, so we were paired up with Australia's Katie Spithill. We raced two races and finished 1-1 at the end of the day.

Flying The Kite High

Photo: Real Club Nautica Calpe Photostream, May 2010

In the quarter finals, we dropped the first race, but rallied back to win the next three races. We controled the first three starts and led off the line. In the first race, however, we were tacked on by the pair racing in front of us who were rounding the leeward mark and so we sat in bad air for a while. This allowed the other boat to gain back the advantage we had and we lost the lead. We almost pulled it back, but couldn't quite get it. The next two races, we led all around and she had a penalty in each race. The last race of the quarters, she led us off the line, but tacked away immediately and we were able to sail fast and gain control of the race by the top of the beat and held on around the course to advance to the semi's.

By the time the semi's started, the wind had picked up to a fresh 15kts and the waves had increased in size quite considerably. In the first race, we controlled Katie from the start and extended our lead on the downwind leg and held on to take the first one. In the second race, we had an even start, and tacked just shy of layline and allowed her to hip up on us and take the lead at the top mark. We caught up to her on the downwind leg, but struggled with our speed the next time round and she won the race quite comfortably. Despite losing the race, we had some good surfs downwind in the waves, which made up a little for the loss. The semi's will finish tomorrow and then the finals and petit-finals will start immediately following the semi's.

You can check the regatta results at the regatta website.

We would like to thank our sponsors 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 support.

Sail Hard,

Anna
Team Tunnicliffe