San Francisco, USA (27 April 2023) – Day 3 of the all-women Casa Vela Cup at the St Francis Yacht Club today finished the double round robin qualifiers and advanced the top four teams to the semi-finals: Nicole Breault (USA)/Vela Racing, Anna Östling (SWE)/Wings Team, Celia Willison (NZL)/ Edge Racing and Megan Thomson (NZL)/ 2.0 Racing Team.
An early lifting of the fog in San Francisco Bay set perfect conditions to complete the remaining three flights of the double round robin before the score sheet was reset for the start of the semis and the 5-8th position playoffs.
As the highest points scorer from the round robins, USA’s Nicole Breault/Vela Racing chose as her opponent Sweden’s Wing’s Sailing Team skippered by Anna Östling. New Zealanders Celia Willison/ Edge Racing and Megan Thomson/ 2.0 Racing Team made up the second semis pairing.
Breault and the Vela Team continued their undefeated record winning the first match of the semis, but the defiant Wings Team from Sweden were determined to have the last word of the day, and they did just that in the second match by controlling the time of their gybe of the downwind leg and managing to gain ahead of Breault before planing over the finish line to even the score 1-1.Drama ensued in the other semis pairing as Willison and Thomson dialed up for Kiwi bragging rights. Sparks flew in the opening minutes of the pre-start as Thomson collided with Willison with the bow of her boat hooking the backstay of her opponent. Willison went on to win the race and Thomson was docked 0.75 of a point for damage. Thomson’s team re-grouped in the second match to lead wire-to-wire and end on a more positive note.
In the 5-8th place playoffs, Great Britain’s Sophie Otter/ Otter Racing had a strong end to their regatta with two straight wins against worthy opponent USA’s Janel Zarkowsky, placing Otter 5th overall.
“Yesterday was a tough day so we were happy to finish today with 2 bullets to climb to 5th” added Otter “This event has been super close racing and we can’t wait to take the learnings to Annapolis next week on the second stage of the Tour.”
Racing concludes tomorrow 28 April with the first start schedule for 1030 PST.
Follow live results at https://www.matchracingresults.com/2023/wwmrt-casa-vela-cup/
For information on the Women’s WMRT, visit https://womenswmrt.com/
