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| OCR, Miami: Day 3, Sorting Out the Seeds | | Print | |
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January 27, 2010
Miami, FL
This morning, at 2010 US Sailing Rolex Miami OCR, we had one job to do, and that was to win our race. And we
did it. We won our race, and other teams lost their races which allowed us
to advance into the Gold fleet this afternoon. With three races completed
in the Gold fleet, we currently have a 2-1 record.
Closely Watched By The Judges
Photo: copyright Walter Cooper, January 2010
It was a beautiful day in Miami today. The wind was a bit shifty this morning although blowing a nice 10-12kts. In our first race, we had a
great start and led all the way around the course. There were times when the
other boat got a bit close, but as a team, I felt as though we positioned ourselves against the other boat well so that we could hold them off. We were
quite relieved to win this race after the disappointing afternoon yesterday. This morning, we were all focused on what needed to be done, and we kept it calm and
simple.
After the first race, we got to come ashore for an hour. The afternoon's racing was much tighter than we have experienced in the regatta so far. Our first
race was against Lucy MacGregor from England. We got our timing slightly
wrong, and couldn't quite get through her lee on the start line. She ended up forcing us away from the first shift and she extended on us sufficiently, that
we couldn't catch up.
After that loss, we were fired up for our next race against Claire Leroy from France. We had a great start with her. We won the side we wanted
on the start line, and she started a little early. We had a great lead off
the line, but she got a little shift right at the end of the first beat and she gained back on
us towards the top mark. Downwind, we got into a gybing duel and drew a penalty on her. From there, we held the lead around the course, and made
it our goal to sail a clean race to the finish. Our last race was against Samantha Osborne from New Zealand. We won the start and then hooked into a huge right shift that put us over the layline for the windward mark, so much so that we had
to start reaching in. We were looking like we were 'miles' ahead, then we fell
out of the puff towards the top of the course and the right shift fell away and
we were now bow to bow at the top mark. We forced Samantha to tack and held her for
a while until we felt we could tack and safely set the spinnaker. We had a fast set, allowing us to extend a bit on the downwind leg. On the second time around, we sailed smart
and fast and extended our lead and held on to the finish.
Tomorrow we will finish up the Gold fleet round robin. The purpose of
this round robin is to seed the top 6 for the quarter-finals. We will be
joined by the top two in the repecharge to make the top 8 and from there, sail a knock-out. You can find results here at the regatta website.
Sail Hard, Anna
Team Tunnicliffe
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Team Member
Secrets of the Champs Clinic
8-11 April 2010
Coach: Anna Tunnicliffe
Olympic Gold Medalist, #1-Ranked 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 has been the ISAF world's Number One-ranked women's Radial sailor since the April 9, 2008 rankings. 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