Thursday, March 13, 2008

Team Wild Oats Chardonnay/Musto Finishes 3rd in NZ

Along with Katie Spithill´s Team Acuity we have another young group of Australian girls, lead by Nicky Souter battling away in the women’s match racing circuit. The girls are currently trying to qualify for the World Championship to be held in New Zealand April 1-6 and have just finished the New Zealand Women´s Match Racing Championship in 3rd place. Here is their report.

Team Wild Oats Chardonnay/Musto started their campaign to qualify for next month’s world in Auckland well by recording a third place at the recent New Zealand Women’s Match Racing Championships.

With several international teams competing this year, including World Number 1 and ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Claire Leroy, competition was certain to be fierce at the Grade 2 regatta. However, the event got off to a slow start with early delays thanks to a high pressure sitting over New Zealand. Day one got underway, but not as planned when we recorded our first loss to New Zealand’s Jan Dawson, the eventual regatta runner-up. After adjusting to the difficult tidal condition and light winds we recorded wins against Waugh, Osborne and Boyd, and a narrow loss to fellow Royal Prince Alfred member Katie Spithill. After an early conclusion to the days racing our first day tally was 3 wins and 2 losses, leaving us in equal 2nd place.

Slightly disappointed with our first day’s tally, we resolved to improve our results on the second day and secure a semi final berth. Once again racing was delayed and the race committee were forced to shorten the series to a single round robin. With only one round robin it was even more important for us to record good results. To this end we had four wins and an extremely close loss to Claire Leroy, which left us in 3rd position at the end of day two.

After successfully making it through to the semi finals, we were keen to race against our opponent Jan Dawson, however the light winds once again delayed the start of racing until 12:30pm. An inconsistent breeze built from the south and racing got underway. In the challenging conditions we recorded a decisive victory over Jan Dawson and were confident we would make it to the Final. Unfortunately, the wind did not settle and racing was called off at 4pm. Final positions were taken from the completed round robin results, leaving Claire Leroy the deserving New Zealand Women’s Match Racing Champion. Jan Dawson finished 2nd and Team Wild Oats Chardonnay/Musto finished 3rd. For their efforts, Jan Dawson (2nd) and Jess Smyth (4th) were rewarded with invitations to the ISAF World Women’s Match Racing Championships in April as New Zealand offered the top two New Zealand teams invites to the World Championship.

Happy with our result and the improvements made to our boat handling in the difficult Auckland conditions, we look forward to competing against some of the world’s best female match racers at the upcoming Harken International Women’s Match Racing Champs and, finally earning that elusive World Championship invite.

Nicky, Kylie, Lilly and I (Ray) would like to extend our sincerest thanks to our sponsors and supporters particularly Wild Oats Chardonnay, Musto, Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, and our parents and families, without their continued support our participation at these regattas would not be possible. If you would like any further information on how you too can support this team then please contact Nicky Souter at nickysouter(at)yahoo.com
by Rayshele Martin

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