Sorting out and staking claims at Miami OCR Day 3

by Barby MacGowan on 29 Jan 2009
Bets on mid-week gains had to be laid on light winds today at US Sailing's Rolex Miami OCR, where 444 sailors from 41 countries completed a third day of competition.

The regatta is part of the 2008 - 2009 ISAF Sailing World Cup for Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls and is also the USA's only qualifying regatta for determining its 2009 U.S. Sailing Team AlphaGraphics.

Zach and Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.), two siblings with the same cause, are gunning for berths not only on their national team but also at the 2012 Olympic Games. They are perfect examples of the caliber of sailors racing here: Zach won a silver medal for the USA in Finn class at the 2008 Olympics, while Paige is an ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year. Brother is currently sitting in third overall after the Finn class completed two races today and sister is in second after winning her Laser Radial class' single race today.

'I was leading in a race that had to be abandoned, which was too bad,' said the 21-year-old Paige, who trails long-time rival and Olympic Gold Medalist Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.) in the standings. 'I didn't pass Anna in the scoring but I closed the gap.' Tunnicliffe, who also was recently named US Sailing's Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, finished seventh today, which she used as her allowed throw-out, and carries 11 total points over Railey's 15.

For Zach, it wasn't his best day, since he dropped down a peg on the scoreboard, but it didn't seem to phase the 24-year-old. 'My main goal is to qualify for the U.S. Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, which is looking good because I'm the top American right now, and after that, it's to be on the podium after the Saturday's medal race.' Railey says that since it's early in the Olympic quadrennium, he has room to experiment. 'I've been working on my decision making downwind-trying to use riskier tactics to see if I can end up in a better position,' he said. 'It worked yesterday but didn't work today,' he chuckled.

And how does this brother-sister team interact at the many world-class regattas they attend together? 'We always check in with each other at the end of racing,' said Paige, while her brother added: 'I analyze things after racing. The Olympics are so far away right now, I really don't even look at that. It's how can we get better now.'

Italy's team of Giulia Conti, Alessandra Marenzi and Alessandra Angelini is one of several in the 12-boat fleet that are seemingly neck-and-neck in the Women's Match Racing event, which is due to make its debut at the 2012 Olympics. Conti won three of three races today for a 100% record and yesterday finished second overall in round robin #1, behind Lucy MacGregor / Annie Lush / Ally Martin (GBR), who also made a three-race sweep of their matches today. When asked if competition here could be considered vicious, Conti said: 'yes, a lot of people came to match racing and took it very seriously. They are really aggressive and (laughs) trying to scare everybody. We are doing very well and having a good time in the boat, also, which is very important.'

In addition to MacGregor's team, Conti counts as her biggest threats the Danish team of Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen/Tina Schmidt/Trine Palludan and two U.S. teams--Genevieve Tulloch/Jennifer Morgan Glass/Jamie Haines (Tiburon, Calif./Seattle, Wash./Jamestown, R.I., USA) and Debbie Capozzi/Jackie Schmitz/Emily Hill (Bayport, N.Y./Washington, D.C./New Haven, Conn.). Conti, a 470 Women's World Champion who represented her country in that class at the Olympic Regatta in Qingdao, has not yet decided if she will declare an Olympic match racing campaign for 2012. 'I have had a great 470 season in 2008 and I am still first in the rankings for that class, so I will continue sailing in both classes and decide which road to take after this year.'

Fleet racing continues through Friday, when Paralympic and Women's Match Racing medalists will be named. The top-ten from the remaining nine Olympic classes will move on to a single medal race on Saturday.

Cumulative points tallied from the inaugural ISAF Sailing World Cup 2008-2009 will determine World Cup champions in each of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic classes. The seven-round series started with Sail Melbourne (Australia) last December and finishes with Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta at the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition venue (Weymouth and Portland, England) next September.

Regatta results, photos and updates are posted at www.rolexmiamiocr.org. Video highlights, produced by t2p.tv, will air Thursday through Saturday and can be viewed at the same URL.

Event organizers have partnered with the City of Miami, and additional hosts for the event include Coral Reef Yacht Club, Key Biscayne Yacht Club, Coconut Grove Sailing Club and Shake-a-Leg-Miami. The Coral Reef Yacht Club also hosts the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, as well as a mid-week dinner hosted by Nautica. In addition, the University of Miami's Sports Medicine Center is providing on-site medical care during the event.

In addition to title sponsor Rolex Watch U.S.A., US Sailing's 2009 Rolex Miami OCR is also sponsored by AlphaGraphics, Nautica, LaserPerformance, Harken, New England Ropes, Sperry Top-Sider and Team McLube.

US SAILING's 2009 Rolex Miami OCR

Top-three Finishes
Day Three

Laser (62 boats) - 6 races
1. Nick Thompson (GBR), 3-8-1-1-[18-16, 29
2. Pavlos Kontides (CYP), 5-2-6-12-[23]-8, 33
3. Lee Parkhill (CAN), 9-[23]-8-14-2-5, 38

Laser Radial (41 boats) - 6 races
1. Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla., USA), 2-5-1-2-1-[7], 11
2. Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla., USA), 6-3-2-3-[42/OCS]-1, 15
3. Emily Billing (Clearwater, Fla., USA), 3-4-[10]-6-4-4, 21

Finn (30 boats) - 6 races
1. Christopher Cook (CAN), 1-3-2-[4]-1-1, 8
2. Edward Wright (GBR), 2-4-[6]-3-2-2, 13
3. Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla., USA), 4-5-1-1-6-[7], 17

470 Men (18 boats) - 6 races
1. Onan Barreiros / Aaron Sarmiento (ESP), 1-[6]-2-1-2-1, 7
2. Stuart McNay / Graham Biehl (Lincoln, Mass. / San Diego, Calif., USA), 3-1-[6]-3-6-3, 16
3. Matthias Schmid / Florian Reichstaedter (AUT), [10]-5-3-2-4-2, 16

470 Women (9 boats) - 6 races
1. Henriette Koch / Lene Sommer (DEN), [4]-1-2-1-1-2, 7
2. Erin Maxwell / Isabelle Kinsolving (Norwalk, Conn. / New York, N.Y., USA), 1-2-[10/OCS]-3-2-1, 9
3. Hanna Saari / Mikaela Wulff (FIN), [5]-5-1-2-3-5, 16

49er (22 boats) - 8 races
1. Nico Luca Marc Delle Karth/ Nikolaus Leopold Resch (AUT), 1-1-3-8-2-2-2-[16], 19
2. John Pink/ Rick Peacock (GBR), 7-2-2-[9]-1-1-5-5, 23
3. Federico Alonso / Arturo Alonso (ESP), 3-[9]-8-3-8-4-1-4, 31

Star (31 boats) - 5 races
1. Flavio Marazzi / Petter Pedersen Morland (SUI), 1-3-1-[32/OCS]-5, 10
2. George Szabo/ Rick Peters (San Diego, Calif. / Marina del Ray, Calif.,USA), 2-7-4-12, 25
3. Rick Merriman / Phil Trinter (New York, N.Y. / Charlottesville, Va., USA), 3-6-13-4, 26

RS:X Men (34 boats) - 4 races
1. Ivan Pastor (ESP), 1-[3]-2-3-1, 7
2. Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED), 2-1-1-[4]-4, 8
3. Joao Rodrigues (POR), 3-2-6-[7]-3, 14

RS:X Women (23 boats) - 5 races
1. Marina Alabau (ESP), [2]-2-1-2-1, 6
2. Zofia Klepacka (POL), [5]-3-2-1-4, 10
3. Blanca Manchon (ESP), 1-1-5-4-[8], 11

Women's Match Racing (12 boats) - Round Robin #2
1. Lucy MacGregor / Annie Lush / Ally Martin (GBR), 14-0
2. Giulia Conti / Alessandra Marenzi / Alessandra Angelini (ITA), 13-1
3. Genevieve Tulloch / Jennifer Morgan Glass / Jamie Haines (Tiburon, Calif. / Seattle, Wash. / Jamestown, R.I., USA) 10-4

2.4mR (20 boats) - 9 races
1. Allan Leibel (CAN), 2-1-2-1-3-1-1-[4]-4, 15
2. Paul Tingley (CAN), 1-3-4-3-1-5-[6]-5-1, 23
3. Damien Seguin (FRA), [21/OCS]-4-5-2-4-4-4-1-2, 26

Sonar (5 boats) - 7 races
1. Paul Callahan/ Roger Cleworth/ Tom Brown (Cape Coral, Fla. / Lithia, Fla. / Castine, Maine,USA), 1-1-2-[4]-1-3-1, 9
2. John Robertson/ Hannah Stodel/ Alex Wang-Han