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| SOF: Day 2 Went 6-0; Advance To The Gold Fleet | | Print | |
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April 26, 2010 Hyeres, France
It was another
good day for Team Tunnicliffe at the Semaine Olympique Francaise
here in Hyeres, France. After sitting around waiting for the wind to
fill in, the first group of the day finally got out to complete their
three scheduled races before our group got in the boats to race. We
had four races left in our round, and we won them all, taking
our record to 6-0 and winning our round robin group. With this win, we
advance to the gold group where we will race for seedings for the
quarter-finals.
A Taste of Yesterday's Close Racing
Our races today were in a shifty, 4-7kt
breeze. It was quite challenging to keep the shifts in check,
especially on the start line. With the laylines changing all the time, Debbie's
job was really hard and she had to be totally vigilant. But she got
them all spot on today. We were really focusing on our boat speed also
today, after we struggled with it a bit yesterday. We came in feeling
much better about both our overall speed and tactics on the course.
Some
Of The Fleet Leaving Harbor As The Wind Fills In
Photo:
(c) Debbie Capozzi, April 2010
Our closest race today was with Claire
Leroy from France. We started just to leeward of her on the start line
at the gun. She tacked away and took the right. When we came
together, we ducked her and passed through to the right. The next time
we came together we were clear ahead and tacked on her. She tacked away
and came back at us where we went in to a fake tack. Both boats got
pretty slow in the maneuver, but we came out of it with a bit more
speed and controlled her to the layline. From there we took a couple
boat length lead and held it for the rest of the race.
The sea breeze was really late today in
filling in and Group C didn't get to do their three scheduled races.
The wind was actually dying on all the fleets during our last race
which made for some really, really tense moments. As we rounded the top
mark for the second time in our final race to then head for the finish
line, I looked downwind and saw a huge 'hole' below the finish line.
The whole way down this final leg, not only were we watching the
sails, our competition, etc, but we could see the hole creeping its way
up the course towards us. The only remaining pressure was the puff
that we were sailing in, and we were sailing right along the edge of it
all the way down. Our only plan to finish the race was to gain as much
momentum as possible during the leg and hope that we would have enough
to coast to the finish line ahead of the other boat. Because they were
behind us, they had a bit more of the breeze and always maintained a
bit more speed than us, but we played it correctly and crossed ahead of
them at the critical time, finishing first.
Tomorrow's
forecast is again for light winds, but hopefully the sea breeze will
fill in quickly and we can get in some racing. Group C will finish their races first
tomorrow, then the boats that finished 3rd and 4th in each group will
race in the repecharge. They will do three races and then the gold
fleet will do three races. You can check the results at the regatta
website. (Click on the match racing link at the top and open the
pdf file when prompted.)
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 USSTAG
for their continued support.
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Team Member
Anna: "To achieve our goals, we need 4D's:
Dream, Desire, Dedication, Discipline"
TM
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 & 2011 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year. Now Anna, skipper of Team Maclaren, 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 and the team is currently ranked #1 in the ISAF WMR rankings.
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