Marinassess Womens Match Racing Regatta - Tied at the top

by Jennifer Crooks on 1 Mar 2014 At the Marinassess Womens Match Racing Regatta, hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Rayshele Martin and her crew of Kathleen Stroinovsky, Amanda Woolf, Shahrzad Vahebzadeh and Elizabeth Robinson are tied with Milly Bennett and her crew of Seldon Coventry, Alice Tarnawski and Jess Russell at the conclusion of day one.

Both skippers have four wins and one loss each and will meet each other in Flight seven of Round Robin One tomorrow morning. It was a frustrating day on water for all seven teams with light and shifty conditions and the breeze coming from all different points of the dial.

On a day where conditions were rather miserable on water, Martin’s tactics and crew work paid dividends. 'It was really tough out there today with such light winds and huge shifts,' Rayshele Martin said.

'It was a great team effort – for two of the crew, Elizabeth and Amanda, it was their first match racing regatta but they sailed like pros and just knew what to do when they needed to. The experience of Shahrzad and Kat helped keep me calm and they knew how to get us out of some tricky situations and kept the boat going as fast as possible in the conditions.'

The conditions, Martin recalled, went from a total glass out then a trickle of breeze coming through rain squalls and once the rain cleared a nor’easter filled in.

Milly Bennett, representing the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and the highest ranked skipper in this regatta, was happy with her performance today. 'We only lost one match and that was because we got on the wrong side of the shift. The breeze was all over the shop.

'It’s nice to see how far we’ve come since this regatta last year. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and our match against Ray (Martin),' Bennett added.

Emma May and her crew of Nicky Bradley, Tara Blanc Ramos, Caitlin Tames finished the day with three wins and three losses resulting in a tie for third place with fellow CYCA skipper Greta Quealy and her crew of Catherine Chua, Emma Harrison, Tiffany Fulde and Alex Paton.

'It was a challenging day on water adjusting to the varying breeze and predicting what it would do next,' Emma May said. 'Overall, I’m happy with our performance and we had fun out there.'

Race Officer Steve Merrington had a tough day in the treacherous conditions. 'It was too light and too shifty. We had a fairly lengthy delay in the middle of the day waiting for the breeze to fill in. We never saw more than 6 knots, but once the breeze steadied later in the afternoon there was some good racing in the last couple of flights.'


Racing continues tomorrow Sunday 2 March at 1015hrs, in the vicinity of Rushcutters Bay, with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting easterly wines below 10 knots tending south easterly 10 to 15 during the morning.

For round robin results click here

Current standings after six Flights of Round Robin One:
(Placing, Skipper, Yacht Club, Wins/Losses)

First - Rayshele Martin (CYCA) 4 wins 1 loss.
Second - Milly Bennett (RPAYC) 4 wins 1 loss.
Third - Emma May (CYCA) 3 wins 2 losses.
Fourth - Greta Quealy (CYCA) 3 wins 2 losses
Fifth - Nina Long (CYCA) 2 wins 3 losses.
Sixth - Lauren Gallaway (CYCA) 2 wins 4 losses.
Seventh - Kate Downing (CYCA) 0 wins 5 losses.