The 2019 U.S. Women’s Match Race Championship was held at Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, MI. The match race regatta consisted of seven all-female teams sailing in Ultimate 20s. The format included two round robin qualifying series followed by a semifinal and final series. Team SDYC consisted of Dana Riley at the front of the boat trimming both jib and spinnaker, Molly Vandemoer calling tactics and doing middle, and Giselle Nyenhuis at the helm.
Our team set out to sail this regatta with two goals in mind. One, as always, was to have a great time on the water. All three of us seldom get the time to race anymore so it was a special occasion to get back in a boat and compete again! The second goal was to get me, Giselle, more familiar with match racing. I hadn’t match raced since I was in my late teens so I had a lot to catch up on! I credit our success to the two amazing crew members on board, who did a great job encouraging me to go head to head with some of the best women match racers in the nation.
The first day, we started off a little on the conservative side just trying to figure out the “match racing” setup as well as trying to understand the Detroit River conditions that included a 2 knot current, which had a huge impact on the race course especially on the lighter wind races. Coming into the regatta unranked in the match racing scene, we were immediately thrown straight into races against the top ranked women. After all was said and done, we pulled off a respectable 3 and 3 for the day placing us in 3rd at the end of the first round robin.
The next day, we had our share of exciting moments – a collision at a start followed by an attempt to take our penalty on the downwind leg, which had us realizing that the umpires were a lot closer than they looked in the rear view mirror resulting in a collision with the umpire boat. A re-sail of that race was instantly called. We were thrilled to go 6-0 for the second round robin but because of the ½ point penalty from the collision, we ended up ranked second into the semifinal round. The final race of the day was the first of the semifinal matches. We took the win and headed to shore happy to have won every match that day.
The early part of the final day of racing saw the same strong current on the course and light winds. The pressure was on to finish the semifinal round as thunderstorms were in the forecast. We continued to have exciting racing against the 3rd placed semifinal team – including a downwind dialup with spinnakers followed by both teams tacking with spinnakers still up! Our semifinal match went a full five races. We won the first race, lost the next two, and then won the final two to put us into the finals with Allie Blecher of Cal YC.
The beginning of the finals saw dark clouds building, thunderstorms looming and unpredictable winds building. The first race found us in a great battle with Allie – she led at the first mark, we passed on an inside lane downwind, and then she got a great shearing shift from the left that had her team pass us at the last mark before the finish. The excitement really escalated for the second race where the wind was now a steady 15+. Our goal was to keep our distance and fleet race due to the conditions. We had a great start to weather of Allie’s team and held a strong position. The wind continued to build, a rain front came through, and then we were hit by a 30+ knot gust that knocked us completely over – keel out and top of mast in the water! The boat finally righted and we gathered everything to keep racing. Just as we headed back upwind the race was called. It was then that we learned that the Allie’s team escaped a similar knock down but both jib cars on their boat blew off with the gust! After a 20 minute postponement on land, we headed back out for what would be our final race. Allie played a great move using the current to her advantage and locked us out of the start. We followed her in and unfortunately weren’t able to catch her. Kudos to her team!
Team SDYC finished second overall and was awarded the Adams Memorial trophy. It was a great week full of challenging and exciting racing. Thank you for supporting us!