Day 4 report Sail for Gold
Debbie Capozzi, Molly Vandemoer and Anna Tunnicliffe
Day 4 summary: Weymouth and Portland, U.K. (June 7, 2012) – Gale-force winds put an early end to day 4 of Sail for Gold, but before racing was halted the race committee completed an abbreviated schedule for most classes, except for Paralympic and Star in which all racing was cancelled for the day. US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider continued to attack the racecourse, the same which will be used in 50 days time at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Friday is the final day of racing for the Paralympic classes, while the Olympic classes will complete the 10-race series (13 for the 49ers) to determine the sailors who will advance to Saturday’s medal race.
Click on the photo to go to the photo gallery by Mick Anderson and US Sailing
Performance highlights include:
–Anna Tunnicliffe with her ‘Team Maclaren’ of Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi won both gold round matches to advance to the Quarter-Final round. They will face Lehtinen (FIN).
Listen to Debbie Capozzi talk about the day: http://soundcloud.com/ussailingteam/us-womens-match-racing-now
–Zach Railey went into the lone Finn race in third place overall. After a long wait onshore while the race committee ran an abbreviated racing schedule due to impending storms, the fleet headed out to big waves and pouring rain. While he was in the leading group of the racing, an unfortunate incident occurred.
Full video interview with Zach Railey
“The whole day has been tough,” said Railey moments after getting back to the dock. “We waited around for the weather system. We finally got onto the water, and I was doing pretty well. I made up a bunch of boats on the downwind and was waiting to go around the leeward mark and it was very tight. There was a boat that came in and didn’t have room. Unfortunately, he tried to take room on a couple of us. There was a pretty big collision; it threw me out of the boat. The boat got broken in the process. It’s obviously very difficult when you’re in the race. Unfortunately it’s part of racing. I know the person did a penalty turn so he knew he was in the wrong. I was in third going into today and it all depends on the results and what happens tonight.”
Railey filed for redress and was awarded average points for his previous races. He is in 3rd place overall.
–In the Laser Radial, two races were completed with Paige Railey taking a 3rd and a 7th. Unfortunately, she was deemed to have started early in the latter and received an “OCS” (on-course side) penalty. With that score used as her throw out, she now finds herself in 13th overall.
– Amanda Clark and Sarah Lihan, now find themselves in 6th overall, after collecting a15-8 in the Women’s 470 class’ two races.
–In the Men’s 470, Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl are four points out of 10th, in 13th overall. Friday will be the chance to move up to the top 10.
– Racing in the Paralympic classes was cancelled for the day due to the storm. It will resume for the final day of racing on Friday. SKUD-18 skipper Jen French, who with crew JP Creignou is currently in 4th overall, explained the team’s plan.
Video interview with Jen French
“The regatta is classic Weymouth weather,” said French. “This week the breeze kicked in and it’s what we should expect for the Games. It’s a good gauge for us against international competition. We’ve been training hard in the starts. We’re getting aggressive in our training and have seen improvement. JP is a very busy guy up front in the SKUD. Between all the lines and controlling three sails, we try to use our communication to keep everything going. It’s a very physical position and he does it well. For our training schedule, we trained a week before this event and will stay here a week after. We have a pretty rigorous training schedule before the Games.”
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