Katie Spithill leads Harken Women’s International

by Lisa Ratcliff on 11 Mar 2006 The southerly that hit Sydney this morning brought plenty of spectacular action on Day 2 of the Harken Women’s International Match Racing Regatta as the ten teams representing France, New Zealand and Australia battled to maintain control of the Elliott 6s.

Having completed Round Robin 1 this morning in equal first place, defending champion Katie Spithill managed to put some in the bank to finish today with a running total of 12 wins against the 10 wins recorded by fellow RPAYC skipper Nicky Souter and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s team skippered by Jess Smyth. The remaining four flights of Round 2 will be sailed tomorrow morning.

With an average wind speed of 20 knots and squirts to 25 knots, the more experienced match racing crews and those familiar with the Elliotts handled the tough conditions well but for those less experienced, there were plenty of dramatic round ups and a number of resulting collisions as well as a crew injury.

Katie Webb, the bow person on the CYCA’s team skippered by Lucinda Whitty, received a blow to the head during a gybe and was taken to hospital for observation, the second incident of this type in as many days.

Tonight Katie was given the all clear to rejoin her team on the race track tomorrow.

This morning’s course was originally set off Taronga Park Zoo but as the southerly increased, so did the chop which forced race officials to move the course to Rushcutters Bay where crews were offered some protection.

With flatter water but inconsistent breeze there were 'lots of gains to be made by clean gybes and good boat handling when the gusts hit' reported umpire Trish Ford.

'The more experienced crews showed great skill handling the large spinnakers and were prepared to gybe in the big gusts, and to challenge the other crews who might then make a mistake,' she added.

Tonight regatta leader Katie Spithill admitter her team, a new combination, had made some silly mistakes yesterday but had learnt a lot from them.

'Today we were a lot more comfortable,' said Spithill.

'There were a few big pressure lines on the course today, which was good fun, and we all had to follow the advice of one of our crew and ‘think fat’ on the upwind legs.

'Our goal for tomorrow is to minimise our mistakes and ‘think fat’ if it’s windy again,' Spithill added.