Aussie Cup hopes
The Andoo Team Australia women lift into practice racing mode with stiff competition.
Photography by Marco Brandon Rossini @SailorGirlHQ
03 October 2024
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After three practice days in Barcelona on the Puig Women’s America’s Cup AC40s, the Andoo Team Australia women finally got the chance to line up head-to-head with their Group B competitors for three practice races.
The team finished strongly with a third in the first race, but felt the impact of falling off their foils in the second with a fifth place finish.
Continuing on their incredible learning curve, and fired up from the fifth, Andoo Team Australia fought hard in the third race to finish in clear second. This was after encountering two seriously close calls, where penalties were both awarded in their favour. The Swedish dominated all three practice races, their experience on the yachts paying off, and the Dutch team were in second overall.
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The Swedish are the favourites but it is shaping as a tight battle between the Australians, the Dutch and the Spanish for only three spots that go through to the semi-final.
Co-helm Laura Harding described the session as “hectic” with “every condition under the sun” coming at the teams in the short couple of hours on water.
She reflected the final test race had some very close calls. “My sailing instinct kicked in and I yelled at the other boat, realising they can’t even hear us, but we reset quickly as a team and got the result.
“We were truly tested with the limited time on water but we managed to pull it together as a team and scoring the second place was nice.” she said.
The racing for the Puig Women’s America’s Cup regatta starts for Australia this Sunday 6 October.
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