Hello all,
We had a relatively rough day today. When all was said and done at the end of the quarterfinals, four of us had tied for the fourth spot entry into the semis. We had unfortunately lost a race in which the umpires completely missed seeing us doing a penalty turn on the upwind (after the race apologizing to us for not understanding that’s what we had done when we GYBED on the upwind leg!), and that team went on to beat us in that race (because we had to do a 2nd turn) and thus beat us in the tiebreak. Bit of a heartbreaker for us, but we did have some other good fun races. In the race against the top-ranked team coming into this event, Lucy Macgregor’s British team, we drew two penalties against them on the final downwind leg to beat them at the finish, and another where we had a very close defensive gybing duel to beat Aussies Nicky Souter, and a third where we just edged ahead of local German Silke Hahlbrock by about 3 feet at the finish line.
We knew from the start that the two teams who qualified in from the repechage round (for 7th and 8th place in the quarterfinal round robin), would have an advantage over the rest of us as they’ve sailed 8 more races, twice as many as those of us who qualified through from the first round. Its was an edge we were okay to give up being assured of a spot in the quarters, but seeing as both teams from the repechage qualified for the semi-finals it seems to have been a big advantage to spend the maximum amount of time in these brand new boats. It would have been ideal for us to make the semis, but we have accomplished many of our goals. Being a part of the first World Cup event in the Olympic boat, getting to sail the Eliott 6 meter and see how it handles and what we’ll need to work on once we get them in the US, and seeing how we stack up against 20 of our international competitors were some of the major reasons for coming here. We finished 6th out of 20, beating many who are currently ranked higher than us, and learned a lot about the boats and about the international competition.
Ultimately we would have liked to sail more than two days, but we understand the hardships of the organizers in trying to get as many teams racing as many races as possible while still having a good event. The competitors all sat down last night with the umpires and PRO’s from Kiel Week and Sail For Gold in Weymouth and had a discussion about some of the adjustments that could be made to the boats and the formats for better racing next time, and we are sure that the events will just get better and better as time goes on. We are excited to get the boats into the US next month so that we can do the same and just get better and better as competitors!
Thanks to my teammates Jamie Haines and Chafee Emory, and our coach Jonas Warrer, and to those who helped make this regatta possible for us. I’m off next week to do the Transpac Race from LA to Hawaii on the Spencer 65 Ragtime, and with our record of a first in the Tahiti Race last year and a first in our division in the Sydney Hobart, we’re looking for a trifecta!
Cheers,
Genny
