Black flag day for Anna Tunnicliffe at Kiel Week

by Anna Tunnicliffe on 29 Jun 2008
I’m not really sure how to describe today’s racing at the Grade 1 Kieler Woche Regatta. I was black flagged out of the first Laser Radial Race and sat it out. Then I led the fleet home in the second race only to be black-flagged. Finally, I finished second in the last race of the day. That means I won’t be competing in the Medal Race tomorrow, but at least I accomplished many of my little training goals.

We were greeted again with a light rain in the morning, and a breeze that was forecast to go right and build as the front went through. The breeze did build and the rain stopped on our way out to the course.
[Sorry, this content could not be displayed]
There was a general recall for the first race. I was called over in the restart, so I had to sit the race out. I watched from the sidelines and did a bit of tuning up to stay warm, and to get an idea of what the wind was doing.

I had a good start in the middle of the line for the second race. My game plan was to go right, so I eventually tacked and headed out to the far right side of the course and came in to the weather mark in about seventh place. I sailed a great downwind leg and rounded the leeward mark in second before I grabbed the lead and held on to it for the rest of the race.

When I crossed the line, my coach Mitch Brindley came over and told me I had been black-flagged again for starting early. I was very upset, because I really didn’t believe that I was over on that start. Besides, I had worked very hard to win the race. The positives were that despite being over early, I didn’t get an advantage on the fleet and I executed my game plan and had great speed and tactics all around the course.

I was still steamed up when the third race started and I drew on my pent-up energy during the race. Again, my game plan was to head to the right. I rounded the weather mark in fifth, and passed two boats on the top reach and one more on the downwind leg to get into second. On the second beat, I battled with China’s Lijia Xu. She just passed me, but I managed to get her back on the downwind leg and stayed ahead of her for the rest of the race. A Danish sailor won. This time, I wasn’t black flagged….finally!!!

So with today’s results, I dropped back to 17th and won’t be sailing in the Medal Race tomorrow. We do however have one more fleet race for those not in the Medal Race.

Results: click here

As always, I would like to thank my sponsors Carmeuse and K-Swiss for supporting my campaign for the Olympic Gold in Qingdao. My website is http://www.annatunnicliffe.com.

Sail hard,
Anna