2nd Overall At 2010 Toyota International Detroit Cup Match Race

August 22, 2010

Detroit, MI

We finished 2^nd overall in the 2010 Toyota International Match Race for the Detroit Cup, after a tightly fought finals against eventual winners Dave Perry and team. We lost the series 3-1 in some very tight races. We advanced into the finals after winning our semi final match-up against Laurie Jury from New Zealand 2-0 this morning.

Anna, Debbie, Amanda and Liz With Bayview YC Commodore Burton (R) and Vice Commodore Burke (L)

Photo: Team Tunnicliffe, August 2010

Our first match, we led Dave off the line, and around the top mark. On the downwind leg, he rolled us on starboard gybe. In a difference of opinion between us and the umpires, we bought ourselves three penalties at the bottom mark and were disqualified from the race. It was not a great way to lose our first race. However, it is what the umpire saw compared to what we saw; we couldn’t argue the calls because they were close, and that’s just the way match racing goes. We rallied back however, and won the next start and the next race to even the series 1-1.

Photo: Team Tunnicliffe, August 2010

In the third race, Dave earned a penalty in the pre-start. Downwind, we again were a little too aggressive and got two penalties at the bottom of the course, cancelling his penalty and leaving us with one to burn. We managed to stretch out enough of a lead on the second upwind leg to burn it at the top mark. The race came down to about six inches at the finish, but it was six inches the wrong way for us and Dave went 2-1 up in the series.

In the final race, Dave beat us off the line and led us around the course to take the series 3-1 and win this year’s Toyota International Match Race for the Detroit Cup.

Photo: Team Tunnicliffe, August 2010

We were slightly disappointed with how aggressively we sailed when perhaps it wasn’t necessarily needed, but we are here to learn more of the game and we definitely learned from our experiences today. The races were close and the umpires had a lot of calls to make, and we learned that we were pushing situations too much and that’s why the calls went against us. We had a great time sailing against Dave and his team, however, given that he has spent many hours coaching us at this game. It was fun to duke it out in a series for once rather than just meeting here and there in a round robin.

We would like to say a big thank you to Bruce and Kris VandeVusse for housing us this year. You can check the results for the Detroit Cup on the regatta website.

Our next event starts on Wednesday and is the Knickerbocker Cup. We will be sailing Colgate 26’s, and we will have a crew of five sailing. Liz and I will be back, but Debbie will be taking off this event; Molly will be on board with us. Also joining the team for the event will be David Dellenbaugh, our coach, and Becca Dellenbaugh.

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 US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) and its sponsors for their support.

Sail Hard,

Anna
Team Tunnicliffe

PS: In an attempt to make these updates and this website more user-friendly, if you have any question regarding terminology etc about match racing that cannot be answered in the MR Simply Put section, please email us, via the Contact Page and we will do our best to explain. We really do want you to understand how it works and why we enjoy match racing so much.