Spithill leads Harken Women’s International Match Racing Regatta

by Jennifer Crooks on 6 Apr 2009
Katie Spithill and her team of Olivia Price, Laura Baldwin and Rayshele Martin have sailed a day with no losses on the board in the second day of competition at the Harken Women’s International Match Racing Regatta.

They started the day with the last flight of round robin one and a race against fellow Australian Sailing and Development Squad member, Nicky Souter in one of several close races of the regatta, winning by only three seconds. This was Souter’s only loss for the day but with three losses yesterday, Amanda Scrivenor is still one win clear of Souter at the end of today’s racing.

Spithill said after racing today, 'I was extremely pleased with the crew work coming together today after only two sailing sessions as a team. All the squad members from the AS & DS are in the same position, which only adds to our experience. It will be difficult tomorrow, to choose an opponent for the semi finals, with several of the AS&DS teams looking like finishing in the top four'.

Dayne Sharpe, coach of the AS&DS teams, was very pleased with all the squad today and will have his hands full tomorrow, coaching the teams who make the semis. 'All the practice is paying off with sail trim and crew work in the gusty and shifting conditions today making a visible difference over the other teams. At times it was difficult match racing today, where a large lead was sometimes hard to defend, although the windy conditions suited the squad and the extra time spent on the water this year, showed in the results'.

Catherine Trew and her CYCA team of Tiffany Fulde, Jen Lowe and Josie Roper were happy with their sailing today, adding an extra two wins to their score card. They had one unfortunate loss when Fulde missed her footing and went overboard coming into the leeward mark. Luckily she was pulled on board again quickly but this mishap gave Amy Lee (RPAYC) the opportunity to overtake Trew and maintain the lead to take the race.

Juliana Senftt from Brazil had a strong flight five – almost pulling off the upset of round robin two. She only lost the race by one second to Souter, unlucky not to hold onto a freshening gust on the inside of the course. Souter signalled her intentions with the win, overcoming yesterday's misfortunes with five straight wins placing her in good stead as the regatta headed towards the closing stages of round robin two.

Tomorrow the Race Committee will complete the final two flights of round robin two before going into semi finals and sail offs. The weather forecast is predicting good match racing conditions again for the next few days and we look forward to more close racing to complete the regatta.

Placings at the end of day two (with two more flights of Round Robin 2 to be conducted):

Katie Spithill (AS&DS) 15-1
Amanda Scrivenor (AS&DS/CYCA) 13-3
Nicky Souter (AS&DS) 12-4
Samantha Osborne (RNZYS) 11-5
Lucinda Whitty (AS&DS) 11-5
Stephanie Hazard (RNSYS) 6-10
Catherine Trew (CYCA) 5-11
Amy Lee (RPAYC) 4-12
Juliana Senfft (Brazil) 3-13
Kim Stuart (USA) 0-16