Finalists decided by tight Day 3 racing

The sunshine finally arrived for Day Three of racing at the Barfoot & Thompson Women’s Match Racing World Championship, hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, home of the America’s Cup. A change in conditions saw a light north-westerly across the course – a vast difference from the 25 knots from the previous days.

Onlookers eagerly anticipated the remaining round-robin flights which had a short postponement until just before 1030 while International Race Officer Megan Kensington waited for the wind to fill in enough to commence the remainder of the round-robin races.

Blue skies brought welcome relief to sailors, alongside a light six knot breeze for the first flight and a strong incoming tide. The first flight of Day Three was completed before the wind died completely and it swung to the northeast, slowly filling in. The event was again under postponement until 1230 before the breeze was steady enough for more competitive racing, and built to 15 gusting 18 knots by late afternoon.

Racing was at the level you’d expect from a World Championship as the top three teams were tied after the round-robin was completed. It was Celia Willison (NZL ‘Edge Women Match’) that sat on top of the round-robin on count back.

Willison, Anna Östling, and Pauline Courtois entered the quarter-finals with fierce conviction, all having won 85% of their Round Robin Flights. Also qualifying for the quarter-finals was Nicole Breault (USA ‘Vela Racing’), Janel Zakowsky (USA ‘As One’), Juliet Costanzo (AUS ‘Easy Tiger Racing’), Megan Thomson (NZL ‘2.0 Racing’) and Johanna Bergqvist (SWE ‘Team Bergqvist’).

Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Commodore, Andrew Aitken, said the teams had a great time on the water today.

“We’ve had an exciting round robin. It’s been really even, three teams finished on the same points which was really cool. We’ve completed a little bit of the quarter-finals today and tomorrow is the big day! We’ll do the semi-finals and the finals and celebrate at the end of the day with a nice party “ said Aitken.

Skipper Samantha Norman (NZL ‘Sailing Mums’) said “It was a lot more tactical today, lots of big picture planning… These sailors are the best people I could think of to sail with, it’s just so much fun and we’re laughing all the time” continued Norman.

Auckland, New Zealand lived up to its reputation with a busy Waitemata Harbour for teams to navigate, including a Classic Yacht Association race, Young 88’s, Finn, Flying 15 and the P Class Auckland Championships, just to name a few.

With the City of Sails back and better than ever, the Barfoot & Thompson Women’s Match Racing World Championship was a sight for sore eyes today, with plenty of excitement building for semi-finals and finals day tomorrow, Sunday 13th November.

The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron would like to thank our line-up of sponsors for this fantastic event, led by Barfoot & Thompson and supported by Auckland Unlimited, Dubarry, Scarbro Construction and Live Sail Die.

Writing and Photo Credits: Live Sail Die