A thrilling day 1 for the ISAF Women’s Match Racing in Bermuda. A strong WSW breeze of 20-25 with higher puffs was in place all day. The RC set an M shaped course, with offset windward marks and a separate finish line - this sped up the racing - by the end of the day 60 matches had taken place. Both the Women’s competition in J24s and the Grade 3 Match racing event (qualifier for Bermuda Gold Cup) in IODs took place simultaneously, which made for a busy course and tired officials. In the stiff breeze, both J24s and IODs were under the no spinnaker flag - racing was therefore very close with less of a chance to break clear downwind. With a late ruling Friday to remove lifelines and stanchions, the women were faced with big winds and little to stop a swim - no one went over, but it was odd to see the J’s being sailed like dinghies with crews fully hiked. Six of the 11 rounds were completed, the balance scheduled for Sunday. With no official results announced by The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, the Bermuda J/24 Class observers will report unofficial ones. Top skipper so far is Betsy Alison (USA) with a 6-0. The next two skippers are Marie Bjorling (SWE), and Nina Braestrup (DEN). All three were very impressive with their boat handling and tactics. The forecast is for 10-15 tomorrow, so spinnakers should come out to play, and Hamilton Harbour will revert to a shifty sailing venue. On the faffage front - a loooong skippers meeting, last minute changes to the SIs and the usual, resulted in missing an hours racing. The rest of the day went very well - from a spectators standpoint, or sitting point, was run spendidly. The cluster of concerned owners placed side bets on the number of masts and booms that wouldn’t survive the day - all did so no winners yet.

The Bermuda Fleet has been working hard for a week now preparing 13 of the boats for the ISAF Women’s Match Racing Worlds that commences this Saturday, October 15th. The boats were weighed and splashed this morning - now there are just minor details to sort out before the competitors arrive and start practicing.

Local knowledge is always worthwhile so here is an insight to the Bermuda boats: The boats are all different colours apart from the two boring white ones - not normally a problem as they are distinguished by skipper accent.