Shoreacres, Texas
November 16, 2007

We lifted our game a few notches at US Sailing’s Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship here today at the Houston Yacht Club and moved up from 13th yesterday to fourth place overall. That’s more like it. It sure helps to start races behind the start line.

Preparing for a spinnaker set - - - Photo: Dan Nerney/Rolex

The first race of the day we had to work through some traffic to get to the front of the fleet but we were in fourth place starting the last downwind leg. We were gaining on the third boat until we wiped out just before the leeward mark and lost a place. We sailed a great windward leg and got back to fourth place and almost overtook Sally who finished third.

The second race brought some big shifts that we played well and we got into second place at the weather mark. The run was a tight broad reach and we surfed past the lead boat and extended on the pack. On the final beat we had to deal with Sally who had worked her way into contention and we got sucked into covering her rather than playing the shifts. However, we held her off and won.

We had a really good midline start in the third race but had some trouble with the shifts and rounded the top mark around 15th. Then we settled down and started grinding back, picking up boats steadily until we were fourth at the second weather mark. We passed the second and third boats on the run and stayed in second place to finish behind Sally who was first.

We were psyched about our boat speed, crew work and tactics. It was a really good day. Tomorrow looks like lighter weather. We have two more days of racing and five more races to decide the Championship. You can find Rolex International Women’s Keelboat Results here.

As always, a big thanks to my sponsors Carmeuse and K-Swiss for their continued support. My website is at annatunnicliffe.com.

Sail hard,
Anna