10 March, 2007 – written by Lisa Ratcliff CYCA (edited by Liz Baylis)
With two round robins now completed in the Harken International Women’s Match Racing Regatta, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Jessica Smyth has booked her semi finals spot as has Nicky Souter and Nina Curtis from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and Meghan Andrew from the host club, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.
Tomorrow morning the semi finals action will begin at 10.15am on Sydney Harbour when Smyth will sail against one of the other semi finalists of her choice in a best of three series. The winner of that match up will sail against the winner of the second semi final in a best of five grand final which is shaping up to be a thrilling encounter given the standard of match racing on display over the past three days.
Smyth demonstrated her fighting spirit today when she was penalised in the pre-start against the CYCA’s Amanda Scrivenor then managed to hold out Scrivenor at the bottom mark while she exonerated herself, coming out of it cleanly while her opponent was left to tidy up a spinnaker wrap.
Places five to 10 will also be decided tomorrow before crews gather to show support for the finalists.
Racing finished late this afternoon following a three hour delay in the middle of the day when the light southerly faded before finally filling in from the sou’east. Sydney Harbour was abuzz with regular club and dinghy racing and unlike the previous three days, the course for the Harken International had to be set around other Harbour activities. “Where we were on the Harbour it seemed like we were the very last to get the sou’easter but there were no other course areas available” said regatta organiser Jenni Bonnitcha this afternoon.
After two losses this morning, the CYCA’s Meghan Andrew welcomed the break in racing as it gave her and her crew a chance to regain their confidence. “We were able to re-group and get back in the right frame of mind to come out and win our races this afternoon, which has put us fourth overall on a countback. Our plan for tomorrow is to keep it simple. We know whoever we sail against in the semis is going to be very tough to beat,” Andrew added.
Full results following the completion of round robin two are available at http://www.cyca.com.au/sysfile/downloads/HARKEN_resultsrr2_07.xls
Harken Australia www.harken.com.au
