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| IWKC - Day 4: WE WON!!! | | Print | |
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October 10, 2009
Rochester, NY
Today, we won the US Sailing Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championships, with a race to spare. We finished the regatta with first places in the first two races of the day, for a total of 12 points overall, giving us enough of a lead to where we didn't have to sail the last race. In second place was Cory Sertl from Rochester NY, with 22 points. Winning a three-way tie for third, was Carol Cronin from Jamestown, RI with 25 points. 
Jaimie Carlson of Rolex USA, Anna, Debbie, Molly, Liz
at the Gala Awards Reception at Rochester YC
Photo: Dan Nerney/Rolex
It was windy and rainy when we woke up this
morning for the final day of racing. The rain stopped, however, in
time for us to venture out to the racecourse. The wind was still up as
we got out there, and since we had had wind all night, it was very
wavy. We did our warm up as usual, and then on our downwind run, I saw
something in the water. I was just about to say, ”We'll round this
lobster pot as a leeward mark”, and then I saw the arm waving. We
quickly dropped the spinnaker, and picked up the woman who had fallen
in the water. It was a bit scary because no-one was around her. She
had fallen off her boat during a gybe, so her team was still getting
their spinnaker down and working their way upwind. We gave her some of
our spare clothes, as we had learned our lesson earlier in the week.
She was very cold, but seemed to be OK. After dropping her off with
her boat again, we continued our preparation for the races.
On The Way To Another Win
Photo: Dan Nerney/Rolex, Oct 2009
The first race, we had a fabulous start, but sailed ourselves back in the fleet a bit towards the top, as we got stuck between two winds in the middle. But on the downwind, my team did a fabulous job of keeping us going fast and we surged from 6th place to second by the end of the leg. Upwind, we passed the leader and then extended on the downwind leg to take the win. The second race, again we had a great start, but came out only OK at the top mark. We rounded the mark in 5th, but again surged into the lead on the downwind leg, holding onto the lead to win the race and the regatta. My team did a great job in putting us in the right position, and staying alert no matter what our situation. I'm excited to sail with them again in two weeks in St. Petersburg, FL, for the Osprey Cup, a Grade 1 Women's Match Race event.
We are all very excited with how we finished
overall. We have been saying over the past couple of times we have
competed in this event, that we wanted to win it soon. And now we
have. It was great, and we are all happy. You can check the results
here at the regatta website.
I would like to thank all of our sponsors for this event, particularly Carmeuse for their continued support of my campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London, Gill and North Sails for their support of our regatta, especially Greg Fisher for his set-up advice between races. Thanks too, to Sperry and Ultimate Marine Group for their support. Lastly, thanks to Sandy and Kirk Simpson for housing us this week. Sail Hard,
Anna
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Team Member
Olympic Gold Medalist, World Class Woman Laser Radial Sailor And Now World Class Women's Match Racer
Representing the USA, Anna Tunnicliffe won the Gold Medal in the Women's Laser Radial dinghy at the 2008 Olympic Games in Qingdao, China. Anna was the ISAF world's Number One-ranked women's Radial sailor from April 9, 2008 to May 2010. She was voted 2009 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year in November 2009. Now Anna, skipper of Team Tunnicliffe, has teamed up with Molly O'Bryan Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi to take on the world and go for Gold in 2012 London Olympic Games in Women's Match Racing. To get a flavor of Women's Match Racing, check out Jobson Sailing Inc
