Whitty unmatched at Harken women’s match event

Jennifer Crooks/Pam Scrivenor, CYCA

Posted: 11  Mar. 2010

Lucinda Whitty and crew today - Andrea Francolini pic

Lucinda Whitty has maintained her unbeaten record in the Harken Women’s International Match Racing Regatta today with another perfect scorecard of 7 wins, giving her an overall total of 16 wins from 16 matches with two flights of Round Robins to be completed tomorrow.

In strong southerly conditions, crews had to sail faultlessly to achieve wins. Skippers with the best boat handling skills who could pick the gusts and shifts gained the advantage in the tricky conditions.

Whitty, from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, which is hosting the event, is full of praise for her crew of Nina Curtis and Stacey Jackson. “We’ve had a really solid day and the girls have performed brilliantly. I am very happy with the perfect scorecard going into the last flights of the round robins tomorrow.”

“The scorecard will be wiped clean when we get to the semi finals at the end of tomorrow and the competition is getting tougher every day,” added Whitty.

First place cannot be taken away from Whitty, who will get to select her semi-final opponent from a group of four skippers currently fighting it out for the remaining three finals berths.

Olivia Price and her crew of Amanda Scrivenor and Angela Farrell, also representing the CYCA and the Australian Women’s Match Racing Team, came away from today with 6 wins and only one loss to the leader Whitty.

“There were some really tough matches today with our best match up against Stephanie Hazard from RNZYS in the second last flight of the day. We were always pushing it right to the edge of the race course, trying to maintain the upwind position throughout the course,” Price said.

“It was good gybing and luffing conditions and we were able to get some good gains but also some losses. Part of our success today was the good support we had from our cheer squad that was made up of combined family members,” she added.

Samantha Osborne representing Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron came away with 5 wins and 2 losses for the day, with her first match up of the day resulting in a loss to fellow club member Stephanie Hazard.

“It was a really good match between Hazard and myself, with only ½ a second between us as we finished. We had some issues with our kite and halyards today – we couldn’t get the kite up as quickly as I would have liked. After we repaired the halyards, the situation improved for the last two matches.”

Jessica Eastwell (RPAYC) also came away with 5 wins and two losses today, securing her fourth position with Stephanie Hazard in fifth just one point behind.

“The varying wind strengths and puffs made it a pretty testing day today,” Eastwell said. When the breeze started to drop later in the day, we had to ensure that we were the cover boat and then keep on the breeze.”

“I am pretty happy with my performance in the regatta so far, having returning to helming after a six year break.”

Eastwell has not had a six year break from match racing, just from helming. She is a member of the Australian Women’s Match Racing team and usually rotates between mainsheet and bow. As part of their training regime, the AWMRT members are rotated through the different crew positions.

Kim Stuart, representing Women’s Sailing Association of Santa Monica Bay, USA had an exciting day two, picking up her first two wins in the regatta.

In summing up the day’s racing, PRO Denis Thompson said that in the shifty and puffy conditions, the umpires and race committee had a testing day with such highly competitive match racing on display.

Remaining flights of round robin two, together with the sail-offs for minor placings will be conducted tomorrow Friday 12 March with racing commending at 1015hrs.

The Bureau of Meteorology predicting a slightly lighter air day with south-easterly winds of 10-15 knots. The event will conclude on Saturday 13 March when the finals will be conducted.

Leaderboard after Day Two:
1st - Whitty - 16 wins 0 losses
2nd - Osborne - 13 wins 3 losses
3rd - Price - 12 wins 4 losses
4th - Eastwell - 11 wins 5 losses
5th - Hazard - 10 wins 6 losses
6th - Bowater - 7 wins 9 losses
7th - Roper - 4 wins 12 losses
8th - Trudgen - 3 wins 13 losses
Tied 9th - Stuart & Thomson - 2 wins 14 losses

Follow the action with live results at: /www.cyca.com.au/editorial.asp?key=4259

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