Gemma Farrell comes out on top

Lucy Burn reports from this weekend's RYA Women’s National Match Racing Championship

The 2005 RYA Women’s National Match Racing Championships took place on the 10-11 September at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. The RYA’s fleet of evenly matched J/80s were used for the racing which tool place alongside a qualifier for the National Match Racing finals in October.

Six of the top Ladies teams in the country took to the water at 10am for the first round robin. A light and shifty breeze meant that the sailors had to battle with poor visibility caused by heavy rain showers throughout the morning. Failing breeze and rain the saw the race committee, led by Robin Richardson and David and Jenny Campbell-James, manage to get only three flights of the first round robin in. The day’s winner was Gemma Farrell with her team of Lucy Burn, Diana Shanks, Bethan Carden and Julia Wilkinson, who displayed a consistent score with three straight wins against Lizzie Edwards, Lucy Macgregor and Katie Archer. Close behind though were Josie Gibson and Lucy with only one loss.

The second day saw a steady breeze from the east providing perfect match racing conditions. The girls took to the water first and completed the round robin from the previous day. Tight finishes were seen as the crews began to work out the shift and pressure patterns that consistently came down onto the course area. Gibson used these shifts well to win most of her matches and led her race against Farrell until the last beat when an incurred penalty forced her to lose the lead providing Farrell with a perfect score card of 5-0 going into the second stage. Gibson, Edwards and last year’s champion, McGregor, were still close behind however on three wins.

A second round robin saw aggressive challenges from MacGregor and Gibson to gain the lead. MacGregor worked the shifts up the second beat faultlessly to overtake Farrell but was caught out in a gybing duel less than 100m from the finish as a windward-leeward umpire decision went against her and a green flag allowed Farrell to cross the line unhindered. In the next flight, Jo Brigg, top 420 sailor but newcomer to the match racing fleet, illustrated her ability to pick up the skills quickly, convincingly beating Macgregor from the pre-start.

Seasoned match racer, Lizzie Edwards ended Farrell’s run of wins, outsmarting her up the beat and working the shifts downwind to extend her lead. Although Macgregor was on three losses, after Farrell’s loss, Gibson was still in contention for the top spot. The penultimate flight of the day saw a close match between Gibson and Farrell with Gibson performing a perfect start gaining a couple of boat lengths advantage over Farrell which was held for 2 legs. This lead was gradually reduced as Burn and Shanks worked to gain Farrell a speed advantage over Gibson’s boat and Carden called a strategic manouvere that saw the team only half a boat length behind at the last mark. Excellent boathandling from Wilkinson, Carden and Shanks downwind provided Farrell with an advantage that they never lost again.

Having won 9 out of 10 races, Gemma Farrell put her convincing win down to great team work and practice: “We have tried to use the same core squad of female sailors to match race together regularly. We also did some training with Sally Barkow and Annie Lush last week - they won the Women’s Match Racing Worlds Champion last year. I think that helped us get back into the racing and they taught us a few tricks too!”

Having won the Women’s Championships, Farrell and her team have automatically qualified for the National Championship Finals in October. Josie Gibson and her team came in second place and have been invited to the semi-final play-offs for the National Championships.