Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia - Team Tunnicliffe up 2-0 in quarterfinals

by Anna Tunnicliffe on 8 Apr 2011 Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia - Team Tunnicliffe day 4 update.

Anna:

Inspite of the fact that I am repeating myself, it was another great day of sailing here in Palma, Spain. The wind filled in around 1:00 pm again, and racing got underway. Today started with two races in the repecharge group followed by our last two races in the gold group.

We won both of our races to win the gold round with a 5-0 record. After a two race break while the silver fleet finished their round, the quarterfinals were under starter's orders. We are paired up against Stephanie Hazard from New Zealand. So far we have completed two races of the best of five series and are up 2-0.

It was a typical sea breeze day again with the wind slowly shifting back and forth. The race committee did a great job at getting in all the scheduled races for the day despite its meaning that our last race finished at 7:00 pm.

We kicked off the day with a race against GBR's Lucy Macgregor. We had a good start to the right of her and lee bowed her all the way up the beat pushing her to the port lay line. We rounded the top mark two lengths ahead and increased the lead by a couple more lengths at the finish. This meant that our score going in to the last race of the gold round was 4-0.

Our last race of gold fleet was against France's Claire Leroy and team, who were also 4-0 going into the race. We had a good start with slightly better speed than them and used it to force them to the starboard lay line. We rounded a length or two ahead of them, but downwind, they closed the gap and we rounded just behind them.

However, we rounded with a bit more speed than them and used that advantage to extend up the second beat to open up our gap again and hold on to it for the finish.

Racing in the quarterfinals finally started around 5:00 pm. We are paired against the second place finisher in the repecharge, Hazard (NZL). We had exciting pre-starts and great first beats with them. We were able to gain the advantage off the line each time and thus were able to control them up the beats. They did a great job of keeping the races close, but we were able to keep a couple of lengths between us in both races to take the lead in the series 2-0.

Racing continues tomorrow morning. The series is the first-to-three points. In the other quarterfinals' series, Silja Lehtinen (FIN) is up 2-0 over Silke Hahlbrock (GER), Claire is 1-1 in her series against Anne Claire Le Berre (FRA), and our USSTAG teammates Sally, EK, and Alana are tied 1-1 in their series with Macgregor (GBR). You can follow along on the regatta website.

We would like to thank our gold level sponsor 11th Hour Racing, and our bronze level sponsors Carmeuse, Trinity Yachts, and Chicago Match Race Center for their continued support of our campaign for the 2012 Olympic Games.

We would also like to thank US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) and its sponsors for their continued support. Also, thank you to our private donors. Please remember that any and all donations/contributions to our campaign should be made payable directly to either The Sailing Foundation of New York (tax deductible) memo'd Anna Tunnicliffe, or to Anna Tunnicliffe.

Sail Hard.

www.teamtunnicliffe.com