The Danish crews skippered by world #1 Camilla Ulrikkeholm and #4 Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen immediately took command when racing began today with the round-robin stage of the 2014 ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship in Cork, Ireland. Both are undefeated so far in this first event of the 2014 Women’s International Match Racing Series (WIM Series):
“We’re of course happy for the results, but I have to admit we struggled a bit with our boat handling” says Ulrikkeholm, topping the score board with 5 wins and no losses.
The Cork J/80s have their spinnaker halyards on the other side of the mast compared to what the Ulrikkeholm team is used to from their Royal Danish Yacht Club J/80s, causing some problems before the crew adapted to the new circumstances. The very challenging conditions on the Cork waters, with puffy winds changing both in strength and direction, together with a rather sturdy tide, also caused the Danish world ranking leaders some problems:
“We’ve had only around 4 knots of wind when practising this spring, so it took some time for us to find ourselves in these tougher conditions” Ulrikkeholm says, referring to the wind speed that during the day reached up to 25 knots.
The Irish sun was shining brightly also over Ulrikkeholm’s fellow club member Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen. With one match less sailed she stays at a 4 – 0 record after the first day of round-robin, hence holding second place in the regatta:
“It was really challenging today, with a lot of breeze and puffs. Some of our opponents capsized, but we managed to get out of everything where needed and could pass the marks in good order despite some spinnaker problems” Meldgaard Pedersen concludes her day on the water.
American Stephanie Roble ended the day with a 4 – 1 record, beaten only by Swede Caroline Sylvan and holding third place so far in the World Championship:
“Caroline was actually faster than us. We managed to pass her, but then she overtook us again and finished ahead. After that match we had to improve our speed” Roble comments.
With a lot of byes between matches and a couple of extra pauses due to breakdowns, Stephanie Roble found herself racing in the first flight of the day as well as in the last:
“We had a long day on the water, but tried to focus on making less mistakes than our opponents. The shifty and windy conditions keep you on your toes when you’re in front, and gives you a chance to pass if you’re behind” Roble sums up.
Results after day 1 of the round-robin at the 2014 ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship, the first event on the 2014 Women’s International Match Racing Series (skipper name, nationality, wins/losses):
1. Camilla Ulrikkeholm, DEN, 5 – 0
2. Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen, DEN, 4 – 0
3. Stephanie Roble, USA, 4 – 1
4. Anna Kjellberg, SWE, 4 – 2
5. Caroline Sylvan, SWE, 4 – 2
6. Claudia Pierce, NZL, 4 – 2
7. Anne-Claire Le Berre, FRA, 3 – 2
8. Klaartje Zuiderbaan, NED, 3 – 4
9. Annabel Vose, GBR, 2 – 4
10. Mary O’Loughlin, IRL, 2 – 5
11. Anne-Christianne Kentgens, NED, 1 – 4
12. Lucie Scheiwiller, FRA, 0 – 4
13. Laura Dillon, IRL, 0 – 6
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Links:
Results
http://www.matchracing.ie/results/
Event Website
http://www.matchracing.ie/
ISAF Event Microsite
http://www.sailing.org/Womens-Match-Worlds-2014.php
History
www.sailing.org/events/womensmatchworlds/18952.php
Past Results
www.sailing.org/events/womensmatchworlds/past_results.php
WIM Series Website
www.wimseries.com
The 2014 ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship, June 3-8, is presented by the Royal Cork Yacht Club, the Port of Cork, the Cork County Council and the Irish Examiner media partner. The ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship is an annual event that was first held in Genoa, Italy in 1999 after a successful event was held as part of the 1998 ISAF Sailing World Championship in Dubai, UAE. Skippers are invited to attend the Championship based on their ISAF World Match Racing Ranking position. Denmark’s Dorte O Jensen is the most successful sailor having amassed four World Championship titles.
Find out more on the history of the event here
www.sailing.org/events/womensmatchworlds/18952.php
Images/Video
High-resolution rights free images from the 2014 edition are available to download on the ISAF Flickr here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedialibrary/collections/72157644940860236/
or the WIM Series Media page here: www.wimseries.com/media
Daily VNRs will be available to download for the duration of the regatta. Please contact Event Press Officer Philomena Maguire Hahnel below for picture/video requests.
About WIM Series
The 2014 WIM Series is hosted by WIMRA for the world’s leading women match racing sailors, and contested in five venues: Cork, Ireland; Vannes, France; Lysekil, Sweden; Sheboygan, USA; and Busan, Korea. An overall prize purse of 50 000 USD will be distributed by the WIM Series at the final event in Busan, Korea, in addition to the prize money at each of the five events included in the WIM Series. Sebago is clothing partner. Official suppliers are Sailnet, 1080 Media, MILK, Sailing Education Association of Sheboygan, Adstream and Match Racing Results Service.
Contacts
Event Press Officer
Philomena Maguire Hahnel
Tel: +353 842 515 804
Email: philmaguire@eircom.net
ISAF Communications Department
Tel: + 44 2380 635 111
Email: marketing@isaf.com
WIM Series Press Officer
Joakim Hermansson
Tel: + 46 70 604 25 04
Email: media@wimseries.com
