A Slow Start to Racing in Lysekil

The second stop of the 2017 Women’s International Match Series saw a dramatically different day from the blustery practice day yesterday.

Some races were postponed due to light and shifty winds, on day one of the Women’s International Match Racing Series. 

After a long wait, the Women’s Match finally began racing with fewer matches than scheduled. 

The new Fareast 28R boats did not fail to please sailors as they came ashore with big smiles:
“Super fun boats with a fast and sporty feeling, really something new and challenging” says Swede Caroline Sylvan of the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club, who won one of her matches and lost the other.

The weight of the new Chinese boats in the Women’s Match is a third of the previous boat, the DS 37s. These boats are sailed with a crew of five instead of six, as in the Danish precursor.

Accordingly, they are much quicker in turning and because they are lighter it makes them faster on water.
The characteristics, in combination with asymmetric instead of symmetric spinnaker is leading to a completely different tactical game on the race course:
“The large asymmetric spinnaker will easily make us broach when luffing the opponent too quickly, so we will have to be a little more careful. But that wasn’t actually a problem today” says Trine Palludan.
 
Despite sailors being used to the DS 37s, Palludan & crew, managed to win both their matches. They are now on top of the leaderboard:
“We’ve practised a few hours in a borrowed Fareast 28R, but apart from that everything is new to us.” Says Josefine Boel Rasmussen, tactician for the Danish team.
 
Alexa Bezel (SUI) currently in second place overall and is also undefeated. Bezel won her only match of the day over World #1 and Lysekil defending champion,  Anna Östling (SWE). 
Bezel commented, “We lost the start to Anna, but were able to pass her at the downwind mark rounding. Then we kept our lead into the finish.”

Bezel describes the race, adding today’s only not completely positive comment on the new boat type.
“The asymmetric spinnaker is so large that it gets stuck everywhere in the manoeuvres, but I guess we have to learn how to sort that out” she says.
 
The weather forecast, on Wednesday, looks more promising. Event organisers Sailnet and Lysekils Yacht Club Gullmar plan to run as many matches as possible, in order to catch up with the program.
 
Standings in Lysekil Women’s Match after the first day of the round-robin (skipper, team, nationality, wins – losses):
1 Trine Palludan, Team Kattnakken, DEN, 2-0
2 Alexa Bezel, ChicaCER Women Match Racing Team, SUI, 1-0
3 Renée Groeneveld, Dutch Match Racing Team, NED, 2-1
3 Johanna Bergqvist, Team Bergqvist Match Racing, SWE, 2-1
5 Anna Östling, Team Anna, SWE, 1-1
5 Caroline Sylvan, New Sweden Match Racing Team, SWE, 1-1
5 Pauline Courtois, Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team, FRA, 1-1
8 Antonia Degerlund, Team Sköna Vibbisar, FIN, 0-1
8 Linnéa Floser, Peregrine Racing, SWE, 0-1
8 Octavia Owen, Athena Racing, GBR, 0-1
11 Marinella Laaksonen, L2 Match Racing Team, FIN, 0-2