Where the Women's International was won and lost

Give your upwind work a better start

You won the 2026 NYYC Women's International Championship with 39 points, ahead of Michelle Lahrkamp on 62. You took the series lead after race 2 and held it throughout. With no discards, your ability to turn ordinary openings into low scores carried real weight. The next gain is making that recovery work less necessary.

Leave less to recover

Race 2 gives you a useful starting reference: 6.8 kt over the ground at the gun, first at both 60 and 120 seconds, then first at every mark. You were 12.7 m behind the line at the gun, so distance alone does not explain the quality of that opening. Review the approach together with the progress you made immediately afterwards.

Race 3 needs the same attention. You started in the committee third with the pin favoured by 33 m, crossed 9.4 seconds after the gun and were still 11th at two minutes. You recovered to second, but that opening left a lot to do. In practice, work on reaching your chosen part of the line with speed and less distance still to sail.

Keep the height working

Outside race 8, your typical upwind ground speed was 3.3% below the middle of the fleet, with your course 4.7 degrees higher. Your upwind VMG index was 103.8. That combination makes height an important part of your progress up the course; assess any search for extra speed against what it costs you in height.

Race 5 shows how much that upwind work could achieve. You moved from tenth at 60 seconds to second at the first mark, then took the lead on the second beat. Race 3's second beat moved you from seventh to second. Those are the beats to revisit when agreeing what good upwind sailing felt like aboard.

Keep racing the runs

Your last run in race 6 moved you from seventh to third and brought the gap to the leader from 37 seconds to 10. You made four gybes on that leg. Keep that race in the debrief when discussing when a manoeuvre is worth making: the value lies in the progress it opens up.

Excluding race 8, you gained 29 seconds per race on the runs against the middle of the fleet. Race 10 deserves a separate look: the first run dropped you from ninth to twelfth, with leg VMG at 94.8% of the middle of the fleet. Review where that leg stopped delivering the progress you had found earlier in the series.

Preserve the exits

Your clean tacks lost a typical 6.2 m against the fleet's 7.3 m, and you returned to 95% of entry speed after 11 seconds against 13. Keep the recovery part of the manoeuvre in your practice review. Against Michelle Lahrkamp, your tacking gained 13 seconds per race, while gybing cost five. Give the gybe exits particular attention when comparing your work with the closest opposition.

Review the closing beats

Race 8 has a hole in the position record, so its start and first-mark ranking cannot support a useful comparison. In race 9, you lost three places on each beat; the second beat's VMG was 94% of the middle of the fleet. Start the next upwind review there. Compare your course and progress with race 5, and identify when you need to reassess a mode that is no longer gaining.