Skandia Sail for Gold - Team Tunnicliffe not on the winning side today

by Anna Tunnicliffe on 12 Aug 2010 Team Tunnicliffe reports from the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta in Weymouth.

Today was the beginning of gold fleet racing after we wrapped up the last race in group A this morning. We had rather a tough day, but sailed good races.

Unfortunately, we didn't win any today, but had some great races, making small errors here and there to put us just behind. We have two more races tomorrow in the gold fleet before the quarter-finals start.

Our first race this morning was against GBR's Lucy Macgregor. We lost the start but caught up by the bottom mark to round just behind her.

Up the second beat, we went left and she went right, both boats depending on their side to come in with favorable wind. Unfortunately, we missed our opportunity to go back towards her; then it was too late, and the left failed us. Lesson learned: do not split completely unless you are 100% sure that that side will come in to your advantage.

After that race it was lunch break so we headed back to shore for a couple hours. When we headed out for the afternoon we were up against France's Claire Leroy, Australia's Nicky Souter, and a rematch against Lucy.

The first race against Claire, we lost the start, and despite being right behind her at the bottom mark, we just couldn't quite catch her on the last run. The second race was against Lucy. We had a close upwind, meeting at the top mark. She over stood and just crossed ahead of us around the mark.

We tacked under her and then as she bore off at us, we went for the luff. Unfortunately we came out of the situation with a penalty. We stayed ahead of her on the downwind and on the second upwind, gained enough distance to spin our penalty and be just behind her on the downwind leg.

We caught up to her and lost by inches at the finish line. It was a great race, and we learned a couple lessons from it. The final race with the Aussies started with us ahead by two boat lengths at the top mark.

They sailed a much smarter race than us and passed us downwind and despite passing them briefly upwind, we didn't manage to hold them off and they took the win from us.

Tomorrow is a new day, and we are looking forward to getting out there and racing again. You can check the results at the regatta website.

We would like to thank Carmeuse and Trinity Yachts for their continued support of our campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London. We would also like to thank US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) and its sponsors for their support.

http://www.teamtunnicliffe.com