The Australian Women’s Match Racing Championships are underway at Fremantle Sailing Club. The CYCA is represented by Amanda Scrivenor, Olivia Price, Sarah McKensey, and Bex Dunn.

Day One of the Women’s Nationals opened in Fremantle with light to medium winds and overcast conditions. The CYCA team had their first race in the second flight against local team skippered by Kirsten Norris (YSA graduate) who was representing the Canberra Yacht Club. After a solid pre-start, CYCA was able to extend upwind to lead around the top mark by about 2 lengths. An unfortunate windshift allowed the Canberra team to get back in the match, but the CYCA was able to put pressure on the Canberra team approaching the bottom mark, and while the Canberra team struggled to tidy their dropped spinnaker up, the CYCA team put the foot down to not be threatened again that race and win by about 35 seconds.

The second and third races progressed as formalities for the CYCA team with dominating prestarts and good crew work, to not be threatened and then be even on wins with both of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club teams of Katie Spithill (Ranked number 3 in the world), Nicky Souter (Ranked number 11 in the world) and fellow Sydney Harbour sailor Lucinda Whitty from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.

After a solid win against Whitty as a result of superior boat speed, the race against Souter did not disappoint! After a number of luffs and circles in the pre-start, CYCA achieved a bow-even tight to windward start, however in the final seconds prior to the start managed to incur a penalty putting the CYCA team slightly on the back foot. What occurred over the next 5 minutes was a warning to the other teams. Through a combination of hiking hard and good sail trim and balance, the CYCA team managed to work to windward of the higher ranked Souter team preventing them from being able to tack, and after taking them past layline, led them back to the top mark to lead by about 3 lengths. After a tight down-wind, the CYCA team were unlucky to not to be able to maintain an overlap into the bottom mark two-length zone, but after taking the safe option of trailing around the bottom mark, positioned themselves well to attack again up the next work.

After a number of tight tacks, the CYCA was able to take advantage of their superior boatspeed once again to be able to force the RPAYC team into a dial down as they approached the top mark for the final time. This was CYCA’s chance to try to ‘wipe-off’ their still outstanding penalty.  After controlling the RPAYC team well to position themselves outside the two-boat length zone, CYCA managed to roll into a gybe, forcing the RPAYC team into a slower tack, and at the same time clear the penalty. However after a controversial call, despite the CYCA team then leading the RPAYC team for the remainder of the race and across the finish line, the CYCA team were then disqualified from the race for not completing their penalty properly despite their flag being lowered.

This was an extremely disappointing outcome for the team after sailing an outstanding race which was said to be some of the best sailing seen by many of the spectators and by was by far the closest match of the event. In the final race of the day against Katie Spithill’s team from RPAYC,  Spithill managed to achieve a slight advantage off the line, and although the CYCA challenged up the first upwind leg, a twist in the spinnaker for the first hoist proved costly and the team was unable to challenge again.

The team would like to thank the CYCA for the opportunity to compete in the Women’s Championship, and looks forward to another two days of close racing. – Will Ryan, Coach