ISAF Women’s Match Racing World - Kiwi Final Report

by Aimee Famularo on 20 Aug 2007
Aimee Famularo gives the final report from St Quay Portrieux, France, on the 2007 ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championships.

Final Report 2007 ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championships

The team is now back in NZ after a hectic few days of racing and travelling (our apologies for the delay in sending this report!). The last two days of racing started with our quarter-final sail-off against Australian Katie Spithill. The morning's weather report didn't look too promising with light air forecast for the rest of the weekend, however after a short delay we were able to get out on the water.

In the dial-up of our first race we were unlucky to miss out on a penalty against Spithill when there was contact between the two boats.
The umpires admitted that they had not been in position to see the contact giving Spithill a get out of jail free card. Unfortunately for us Spithill was able to lead off of the start line and maintain her lead in the light airs until the finish.

The second race was very close, however we were penalised for tacking too close at the top of the first beat and were not able to gain enough to pass and complete the penalty, giving Spithill a second win.
In the third race Spithill again got the better of us in the pre-start and was able to successfully maintain her lead to win the quarter-final 3-0 and advance to the semi-finals.

This left us to race against Christelle Philippe. The breeze had picked up slightly by this stage and we were able to get the better of them in the first race leading from start to finish. Unfortunately for us Philippe managed to pick her way through the shifty conditions better than us in the next two races, winning the series 2-1. This left us to race for 7th and 8th place against world number 3 Silke Hahlbrock on the final day.

The final day of racing was true to the early weather predictions of no wind and left us sitting on shore until 2pm when a light, shifty breeze of 5-8 knots allowed racing to begin. The sail-off for 7th and 8th place was scheduled to be the best of 3 (first to win 2 races), however due to time constraints it was reduced to one race. We had an even start against Hahlbrock and tacked off early to the right.

Unfortunately the tidal relief on the left proved better than the stronger breeze on the right and Hahlbrock led narrowly around the top mark. We closed up on the run only to have the Germans extend again out to the left on the next beat. We were unable to get around them on the final run leaving us in 8th place overall.

The team had a great week's racing and are happy with our performance at our first ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championships. Next years event is to be held at the RNZYS in Auckland, from 1-6 April 2008 and we're looking forward to improving on our performance, sailing on home waters and in our own boats.

We'd like to thank all our supporters and wish to give special thanks to the RNZYS, Georgia Racing, Configure Express, the Gear Locker and the NZ Community Trust.

Final Results:
Placing Skipper Current ISAF Ranking Nationality
1st Clare Leroy 1 FRA
2nd Katie Spithill 11 AUS
3rd Lotte Meldgaared Pedersen 2 DEN
4th Josie Gibson 12 GBR
5th Klaartje Zuiderbaan 4 NED
6th Christelle Philippe 9 FRA
7th Silke Hahlbrock 3 GER
8th Jessica Smyth 16 NZL
9th Jenny Axhede 5 SWE
10th Nicky Souter 6 AUS
11th Gemma Farrell 10 GBR
12th Sandy Hayes 15 USA



We are thankful to the RNZYS, Georgia Racing, Configure Express and the NZ Community Trust and our other supporters (Mum, Dad) for helping us to get here. For results and other information check out the website http://maiarmor.free.fr/wwmr/