US Grand Slam series - TG into quarter finals of Oakcliff

by Team Gilmour on 8 Sep 2013 The lads are back into it after a couple of days off taking in the sites of NYC. We are here in Oyster Bay, Long Island at the Oakcliff Sailing Center for the Oakcliff International grade two.

This is the final event of the US Grand Slam series, which we are currently leading. Close behind us, however, are Tre-For Racing skippered by Nicolai Sehested (DEN) and 36 Below Racing skippered by Chris Steele (NZL). With the points very close whoever finishes highest in this event takes out the overall prize and entry to the Congressional Cup (ISAF Grade one) and Chicago Match Cup (Alpari World Match Racing Tour).

We have made a solid start to the Oakcliff International and are currently in second place after finishing all our races of the round robin, ending on 8.5. The half point deduction was imposed on us due to damage caused in a luff against Robert Hughes..

Being in the top four after the round robin gives us a ticket straight into the quarter finals, while those in 5 to 12 battle it out in a repechage round to decide the remaining four spots in the quarters.

The boys are feeling good and are loving having Will 'Macca' Mackenzie back on board after he missed out on sailing the Knickerbocker Cup with us as he was busy doing the Farr 40 worlds with Sydney based team Transfusion.

The current round robin results are as follows:
1 Chris Poole: 9 wins 1 loss
2 David Gilmour: 8.5 wins 2 loss
3 Nicolai Sehested: 8 wins 2 loss
4 Eric Monnin: 7 wins 3 losses
5 Chris Steele: 6 wins 4 losses
6 Dustin Durant: 5 wins 6 losses
7 Robert Hughes: 4.5 wins 6 losses
8 Ashlen Rooklyn: 4.5 wins 6 losses
9 Stratis Andreadis: 4 wins 6 losses
10 Mark Lees: 3 wins 7 losses
11 David Storrs: 1 wins 10 losses
12 Chantal Hearst: 1 wins 10 losses

The forecast for the next two days is looking good and we feel we are sailing well and are confident we can really give the top guys a tough battle for the regatta and the overall grand slam.

Now off to watch an American football game and support Cam, the son of Al and Priscilla who were kind enough to host us this week!

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