The wind, the spectators and finally also the sunshine, came to Lysekil Women’s Match, the 2nd event on the 2017 WIM Series, on Wednesday. Trine Palludan from the Royal Danish Yacht Club picked up another couple of matches, and is still undefeated with her four wins: “It’s a great feeling. In our crew we are three experienced match racers and two younger girls with a lot of energy. We’ve just tried to make everything as simple and easy as possible,” Palludan explains.
Wednesday opened with rain and grey skies and easterly winds, a direction that always brings shifty and gusty conditions to the race course in Lysekil. After lunch the wind turned to south, increased and blew away the clouds to let the sun shine. More fluctuations led to many course changes, and some waiting.
“Today we talked a lot in our boat about wind shifts,” states Danish tactician Josefine Boel Rasmussen.
“Of course, we also put a lot of effort in handling the new boats’ large gennakers, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement,” skipper Palludan adds.
Former Olympian Renée Groeneveld also mastered the shifty conditions, and the new Fareast 28R boats, well. The Dutch share the runner-up position with Pauline Courtois of France.
“The huge gennaker makes any small mistakes quickly grow bigger. It easily falls into the water and gets stuck there,” explains Groeneveld, so far on three victories and just one loss. “We are really keen to do more races now. It’s all about learning the boats, and to do it as quickly as possible!”
Swedish club mates Caroline Sylvan and Anna Östling of the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club share fourth place, on four wins and half as many losses each. Racing continues Thursday with the initial round-robin, and hopefully a repechage round-robin if time permits, and Friday will see the quarters. Semis and final will be run Saturday.
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, 4-0
2 Renée Groeneveld, Dutch Match Racing Team, NED, 3-1
2 Pauline Courtois, Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team, FRA, 3-1
4 Anna Östling, Team Anna, SWE, 4-2
4 Caroline Sylvan, New Sweden Match Racing Team, SWE, 4-2
6 Alexa Bezel, ChicaCER Women Match Racing Team, SUI, 3-3
7 Johanna Bergqvist, Team Bergqvist Match Racing, SWE, 2-2
8 Marinella Laaksonen, L2 Match Racing Team, FIN, 2-3
9 Octavia Owen, Athena Racing, GBR, 1-4
10 Antonia Degerlund, Team Sköna Vibbisar, FIN, 1-5
10 Linnéa Floser, Peregrine Racing, SWE, 1-5
