(Report submitted by Bex Marriott, Team Sail 4 Cancer)

The German Ladies Match Cup was held on Lake Balderney as part of Essen Segel Woche over 1-2 September 2007. Teams from the home nation were joined by others from Austria, Portugal, France, Great Britain and Denmark.

The short course laid out for the weekend meant a good start and not conceiving penalties played a large part in the tactics of each race. The Round Robin was sailed and completed in light and shifty conditions on the Saturday with the top 4 going through to the semi finals. GBR’s Team Sail 4 Cancer (Gemma Farrell, Rebecca Marriott and Claire Stopps) dominated the Round Robin, only to miss out on a flawless scoreline on the final run. The team finished top and were comfortably through to the semi finals alongside Ward (DEN), Willim (GER) and Wagner (AUT).

Sunday brought slightly more consistent and stronger winds, which proved exciting for the spectators lining the shore and tough conditions for the Sail 4 Cancer team, sailing in this formation for the first time. The places for 5-8 were sailed off first with all kinds of penalties and exciting pre-starts. Then came the semi finals where Ward was racing Willim and Farrell was racing Wagner in first-to-three points series. Farrell was the stronger team and finished the semi-final 3-0 where Ward had a tougher time but finished 3-1 to create a GBR vs DEN final.

The Petit Final was won by Willim who were the stronger team against the Austrians.

The final was sailed in good breeze and was a first-to-two points series. The first race was exciting and Farrell saw herself dominating the prestart, leading around the course until she had to take a penalty on the final beat. Out of the penalty, the Brits were half a boatlength behind and the Danes made no mistake on the last leg to give them back the lead. With confidence from the first win, Ward who performed excellently in the second race, winning the pin and sailing faultlessly to win the event for the third year in a row.