From 27 to 32 knots...
It's Friday and we are, save for the bigger boats, not going out.... too much wind.
That gives me the opportunity to write this blogpost.
The Match Race event ended on Wednesday with Semi-Finals and Finals...
Best of five in both. The final was between two Australian boats helmed by Katie Spithill and Nicky Souter.... A real match race fight... going al the way to the fifth and deciding race.
With a penalty in the pre start Nicky went in with a disadvantage but with a small lead in the race... She held that lead throughout the race but was never so far ahead that she could shed her penalty without ending up behind...
That meant we would see some action in the final run... And already at the windward mark she was posed to do the mark trap.. But Katie did not fall for this.. She slowed down already approaching the mark and let Nicky sail away from the mark only two boat lengths behind... With the mainsail at the centre and no kites both boats slowed down. Nicky to get Katie to commit so she could luff and Katie so she would stay behind....
About halfway down the leg Nicky gybed to port and Katie accelerated by throwing up to spinnaker and went to the right on starboard... By the time Nicky could gybe back and luff Katie already was half past her... With a clean roll Katies boat surged ahead.... Nicky wanted to shed her penalty by directly tacking behind, but unfortunately the umpire boat was in the way....
She had to fall off again and had to take her penalty at the finish... Katie had already crossed the line...
A red flag was flying on Nicky's boat... We had to do a hearing en informed the RC that he should leave the marks in case of a re-sail...
In the end that did not happen because of the position the interference occurred would have made it very unlikely that Nicky would have caught up again after she would have been able to take her penalty. Redress granted- there was definitely interference - but the results would stand.
A great way to end this first tournament in the Elliot's!
For full results go to: Woman Match Race Kiel 2009
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment