September 15, 2008
Anna Tunnicliffe had an outstanding last day and is the new US Women’s
Match Racing Champion. She knocked out Katy Lovell in the
quarterfinals and then beat Liz Baylis in the semi-finals.
Tunnicliffe drew a foul against Baylis during the first match of the
semi-finals, but Tunnicliffe was able to clear herself on the second
upwind and still win. In the second match of the semi-finals, the
boats were close and Baylis was able to hold Tunnicliffe out 100 yards
past the starboard layline on both port and starboard tacks. Baylis
won this match but Tunnicliffe won the third to advance to the finals.
She won both matches of the finals against Genevieve Tulloch.
Genevieve Tulloch nearly had a scare in the quarter-finals when Molly
Carapiet got ahead of her in two matches. However, Molly had drawn a
foul in one start and didn’t have enough distance to complete her turn
and still win.
In the petit-finals, Baylis won the start of the first match and
started to leg out against Joann Fisher. She was able to take her
penalty turn on the second upwind and stab back at Fisher on starboard
and force her to tack away. Baylis won this match and the next to put
her in third and Fisher in fourth.
A shifty, puffy offshore southerly of about 10 knots started day 4.
Twenty to thirty degree shifts were a factor all day and the wind
built to a steady 12-15 with higher gusts. The sun came out for a
great finish to the regatta. 148 races were sailed in all. Rochester
Yacht Club was proud to host the championship and looks forward to
hosting more in the future.
September 15, 2008
Genevieve Tulloch continued her strong performance today and finished
out the second round robin of stage 2 on top. Debbie Capozzi did
manage to get ahead of Tulloch after initially losing the start in one
match. Liz Baylis continued to hold on to second. Anna
Tunnicliffe-Funk had a better last half of stage 2 and came back to
third. Rounding out the gold fleet are Joann Fisher, Debbie Capozzi,
and Katy Lovell.
In the silver fleet, the Rochester junior girls won a couple of
matches and moved into fifth place from sixth. Elizabeth Hjorth as
the leader of the silver fleet and Molly Carapiet in second move into
the quarterfinal knockout series starting tomorrow.
Day 3 started with no wind and fog and racing was postponed for three
hours on shore. Finally, a light easterly of about 4 knots filled in
which was enough to get going. The strong east to west current left
over from day one and was still hanging around. The wind was quite
shifty while it settled in and there were several course changes.
After the end of stage 2, incoming rainstorms pulled out all the wind
and the Wayne Bretsch, the PRO, wisely cancelled racing for the day.
September 13, 2008
Anna Tunnicliffe went undefeated in the first round robin before the
fleet was split into Silver and Gold. She was able to come back to
win against Baylis after a pre-race penalty for entering the box
early. Liz Baylis stood in second with two losses. After splitting
into the gold and silver fleets, Genevieve Tulloch came on strong
winning four of her five flights while Tunnicliffe slipped back by
only winning two of her five flights. Liz Baylis held onto second and
there is a four way tie for third half way through stage 2.
In the silver fleet, Elizabeth Hjorth has won all five flights in the
first round robin of stage 2. There are no ties in the silver fleet
half way through stage 2. Umpires reported tighter and more
aggressive racing today.
The racing conditions were a little more consistent today with winds
out of the south ranging from 8-15 knots. Rain was prevalent for most
of the day, and a strong east to west current was left over from
yesterday’s easterly.
Forty-eight races were run today and the regatta is half way through
the gold and silver rounds. Tomorrow the gold and silver rounds will
be finished and racing proceeds to the semi-finals.
September 11, 2008
Anna Tunnicliffe started off the regatta well by winning all her matches, followed closely by last year’s champion Liz Baylis. Also doing well are Genevieve Tulloch, Joanne Fisher, Deborah Capozzi, and Katy Lovell. The leaders rarely swapped places after the start. Joanne Fisher was able to capitalize on a spinnaker douse problem and gain the lead in one of her matches.
The racers saw a wide variety of conditions on Lake Ontario at the Rochester Yacht Club. The day started out with out 5 knots of wind out of the east and was shifty in the early flights, challenging the race committee with several mark changes. The breeze steadily built to a solid 15 knots with higher puffs by flight 5 and no spinnakers were flown in flights 7 and 8. All but two races were completed through flight 8.
There were many Olympic sailors on the racecourse today. Anna Tunnicliffe (Laser Radial), Deborah Capozzi (Yngling), and Carrie Howe (Yngling) from 2008 were all on different teams. Carol Cronin (Yngling) and Liz Filter (Yngling) from 2004 were also sailing against each other. Abby Ruhlman was racing against her daughter, Meagan Ruhlman.
