Women Match Racing at Monsoon Cup

by Al Constable on 28 Nov 2007 In this year's prestigious Monsoon Cup, the last and deciding round of the World Match Tour, there are two women skippers competing, Malaysia’s own Tiffany Koo and Australia's Katie Spithill, with the only all womens team, Team Acuity.

Both women have a love for match racing and have been invited to this event after outstanding performances in the past twelve months.

Australia's Katie Spithill started sailing at the age of six and racing at the age of seven. At 16 she started her match racing career, which has gone ahead in leaps and bounds. Spithill is currently ranked third on the Women’s World Match Race Ranking.

Her Team Acuity crew of Heidi Gordon, Nina Curtis, Jess Eastwell, Stacey Jackson and Alessandra Angelini are set to compete against some of the world’s best match racers in this event. Although ‘weighing in light’, they are hoping the Monsoon winds are not too strong and give them a chance to match the men in the flights.

When asked if she had received any advice from her brother James Spithill about the Monsoon Cup course, Katie replied ‘ It’s not over till it’s over’ and ‘be aware of the conditions’… references from James no doubt, to his very close flights in last year's regatta.

Sail-World recently asked Katie why she had chosen to specialise in match racing and the answer she gave was surprisingly pragmatic: it came down to what was financially feasible and which class would provide a level playing field.

‘With match racing the boats are provided and they’re all identical so it’s not about who has the most money or whose parents have the most money or the best equipment; because the equipment is identical it’s only how you sail them and often it’s about how quickly you can grasp the concept of sailing a different boat.’

‘It also makes it a lot more feasible to be able to travel to all the events because we’ve only got to budget airfares not shipping boats and repairs and what have you.’

Katie was enthusiastic about the recent ISAF decision. ‘We will take it on…nothing has changed for us, we have got the same schedule, the same plans, still no money and that’s the way we go.’

The time Katie recently spent in Europe has certainly delivered results. Her latest achievements include second place in the ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championships in France in August, in October a win in the first grade of the USA Women’s Rolex Osprey Cup and in the preceding month they had strong performances in the Australian Women’s Match Racing Nationals and the Trentino Women’s Match Race in Italy.

Team Acuity set their target to reach the number one position in either 2008 or 2009, a target that does not seem unrealistic given recent performances.

Katie again. ‘For me being out of a base in Europe really helped, and a lot of the other girls were based in Europe as well, but we can’t keep doing it forever. The girls need to finish uni and earn a living at some stage, but while we are having fun we will continue. This (the Monsoon Cup entry opportunity) was unreal for us, because it fitted into the budget.’

For young Malaysian sailor Tiffany Koo, this is her second entry into the Monsoon Cup. After a few very close and indeed nail biting finishes last year, Tiffany and her team are looking forward to being higher up the leaderboard this time around.

After winning the Malaysian Match Racing Championship for the second year running, Tiffany gained automatic entry into this year’s Monsoon Cup. She is well know for her local and international participation in sailing events and recently competed at the China Cup in Shenzen.

She started sailing at the age of eight in Optimists, and progressed quickly through the single-handed junior ranks, winning the Malaysian Junior championship early on in her career. She loved sailing and grabbed every opportunity to better her performances in the junior ranks, winning the 2001 Byte World Championship and a Gold medal in the Laser Radial class at the 2001 Southeast Asian Games.

Koo abandoned sailing the smaller boats to take up match racing and do more big boat sailing. She currently drives and trims headsails on the Hong Kong 75-footer Jelik, owned by Hong Kong sailing identity and one of her sponsors, Frank Pong.

Her brother Jeremy is also an outstanding sailor and was involved with Team China in their recent America’s Cup bid. His involvement opened a door for Tiffany to spend time training in Europe and to improve her match racing and general sailing techniques.

‘We had some very close races in last year’s Monsoon Cup. We won our debut race against rival Wearn Haw Tan from Singapore, then we were leading James Spithill just metres from the finishing line, only to be beaten by a second.

‘We’ve learned a lot over the last year,’ concluded Koo.

At just 23, she is Malaysia’s leading Women's Match Racer, currently ranked 102 on the Women’s World Match Race Ranking and is excited that ISAF voted to include Women's Match Racing at the 2012 London Games.

When asked ‘would she like to be at the Games’, Tiffany replied ’Very much, but there are not a lot of girls sailing in Malaysia. All my crew here are men. Even with guys on the boat, we are very light, we are all small framed anyway … in this regatta we will be 90kg under the limit.’

For her assault on the Monsoon Cup this year, Tiffany’s UK Halsey Gapurna Team consists of brother Jeremy, Ong Khing Sing, Looi Sing Yew and Chris Mitchell.

She explained that without her sponsors UK Halsey, Selangor Gapurna and Frank Pong, she and her crew could not campaign at this level and she is sure she will glean further valuable experience from being pitted against her more experienced match racing opponents and is hoping to win a match or two in the process.

Both Katie and Tiffany have more than the love of match racing in common. Both women are very grateful to their current sponsors and both are looking for further sponsorship to enable them to continue their sailing careers.

And a reasonable share of the large purse on offer at this year’s Monsoon Cup is certainly within reach of both of these very talented sailors.