Silver Sails reflect on the Telecom NZ Match Racing Nationals
by Silver sails Racing Media on 17 Nov 2009
Silver Sails enters the start gate - Telecom New Zealand Match Racing Nationals RNZYS Media
Silver Sails Racing (Samantha Osborne, Jenna Hansen, and Raynor Smeal) reflect on the just concluded Telecom New Zealand Match Racing Championships
Greetings
Today we finished 10th at the NZ Match Racing Nationals, which were raced in the Farr designed MRX out of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Club at Westhaven.
Our Silver Sails team were short of one member Jenna this week, who was working in Wellington. The team consisted of Sam Osborne - Helm, Raynor Smeal - Main, Geoff Woolley - Trim, Ross Masters - Pit & Shaun Grigg - Bow.
Though the result was not as high up the ladder as we had hoped, there was still some great and intense racing had in varying and trying conditions.
The MRX yachts are physically demanding boats to sail (hence the reason for the stong boys on board!) and over the 4 days we had 2 1/2 of them in winds up towards 25 knots.
Day 1 was a fairly breezy introduction to MRX Match Racing. We had a slow start with only one win, regretting not having the chance to practice sailing these boats as a team much before the regatta due to exams and crew availability.
Day 2 the wind was a lot more variable and the sun was out. The light and shifty conditions we hoped would open the game up for us, however some of the shifts didnt go our way and we didnt do much better.
Day 3 ended up being our best day of racing winning 3 races out of 5, was in fact the windiest and for us a relatively expensive one! When we drew 'our' boat - Norths Sails- we knew it would be a good day! Norths is the boat that owner Nick Thorpe generously comes sailing with us on for some owners racing and Wednesday nights. We started out with 3 good wins and then it got expensive when we twisted out spinnaker around our forestay in a run and damaged it in the proecess. We checked the kite and repaired what we thought was lucky minor damage and went into the next race ready to go. On our first hoist in the next race as the kite set, the luff ripped nearly all the way down. Also today we sacrificed a watch to the sea gods, when Ross's watch got ripped off his wrist during a busy mark rounding.
Day 4 wind was very up and down. We had 2 final races of the second round robin and then into Semis or sail offs. We ended up paired to race our Squad members Steph, Sus and Miranda in a minor battle for the best girls team, as all 3 teams ended up at the bottom of the results table. The first race we were over at the start, so were chasing from the beginning and there were limited passing lanes in the building pressure out there today. The second race we were forced into our second option start, and crossed just behind up the beat. We pushed all the way around the course, and unfortunately some boat handling let us down at the moments where passing opportuities opened.
Overall we enjoyed the regatta, sailing with Ross, Geoff and Shaun was fun and a great to learn from other sailors. We missed not having Jenna on the boat from the team dynamics and communication loops perspective.
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Feedback from our coaches (who were racing against) was we had some really good starts, which we were very happy with. It unfortunately was our experience on the MRXs and being under weight let us down around the race track.
However as when racing some of NZ's best match racers there were lots of lessons learned and we got the opportunity to see our coaches in action the Top 4 yesterday and today. With Laurie Jury coming through for with the win. Well done coach!
The Squads next focus is our build up to Miami Olympics Classes Regatta at the end of January 2010. We will be training on the RNZYS Elliott 6m as much as we can, have a training camp at Kawau with Rod, Graeme & Laurie and a mini regatta in Wellington lined up before Christmas.
Thank you to everyone for all of your on going support, it is a long road to the Olympic Games and we appreciate all the support you give.
Very special thanks to Yachting New Zealand, SPARC, & RNZYS.
Cheers
Raynor Smeal, Sam Osborne, Jenna Hansen
(Silver Sails - NZ Womens Match Racing Squad)
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