Under blue skies with variable moderate winds, Skipper Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), swept the third day of the U.S. Women's Match Racing Championship on Saturday, remaining undefeated 12-0.

After the quarter finals, the semi finals on Sunday are set with: Tunnicliffe (12-0), Defending Champion Debbie Capozzi (7-3), Liz Baylis (San Rafael, Calif.), (7-3) and Katy Pilley-Lovell (New Orleans, LA) rounding out the top four. Tunnicliffe wins top honors with her undefeated record in choosing whom she will race against on Sunday morning.

The match races hosted at the Bayview Yacht Club, held between U.S. and Canadian shores in the shadow of the Detroit skyline, are sponsored by Rolex Watch U.S.A. and Dry Creek Vineyard. Light air (8-10 knots) and blue skies and sunshine greeted the morning match races. One match race and two Repecharge stages were held Saturday morning to break the tie for sixth place among four teams.

“The competition is amazing. These are the best women sailors in the country and it’s really great to be sailing among them,” said Bev Keeler, sailing with crewmate Coralee Skoch and skipper Sue McDowell, all from Cleveland (Ohio) and the Edgewater Yacht Club.

“Today was our best day of all but it maybe a little too late,” said Keeler, “It looks like Tunnicliffe is going to be unstoppable.”

“I used to sail with her almost every week when she lived in Ohio,” said Skoch. “We raced lasers and J-22s and she was good back then and is even better now.  She works really hard to improve her performance from one match to the next.” Skipper McDowell, who is ranked 111 in the ISAF, added: “The air was good today and sailing against Rolex champions and Olympic competitors is always exciting.”

Winning the tie-breaker was Charlie Arms, Liz Hjorth, Lauren Knoles with Angela Scheibner coming in fourth. In the early afternoon races a parade of 32 Cigarette boats roared through the waters before realizing a sailing race was underway. The power boaters cut to idle speed out of the race course area in deference to the women racers. International freighter traffic passed by throughout the day with a 1,000-foot freighter providing a dramatic moving backdrop. The races and U.S. Coast Guard vessels patrolled the U.S.-Canadian waters, with one cruiser inadvertently straying into a match race.

The third day of the regatta on Saturday was met with temperate weather and moderating winds compared to the first-day doldrums on Thursday. Storm-laden winds on Friday forced two race delays as winds gusted to 25-knots.

As the winds increased in the afternoon a breeze helped contribute to a minor collision among Tunnicliffe and Kathy Lundeen (Sheboygan, Wis) with the penalty flag going to Lundeen’s blue boat.

Sunday’s weather is expected to be sunny, blue skies and temperature in the mid-70s with a steady wind in the 7-10 knot range.                                   

Tunnicliffe, who recently returned from China where she captured a Gold Medal at The Good Luck Beijing – 2007 Qingdao International Regatta is racing with crew Liz Bower (Rochester, N.Y.) and Jean "Ali" Sharp (Annapolis, Md.). 

The 33 competing sailors in Detroit hail from compass points across America including home ports of Annapolis, Maryland; Alameda, California; New Orleans; San Francisco and some of the sailors are coming from world sailing events as far away as Italy and China for this premier women’s sailing competition held in the Detroit River near Lake St. Clair. The final race match will be held Sunday at 10 a.m, September 9.

Among the metro Detroit racers is Lauren Knoles, 18, the youngest skipper in the event and making her match-racing debut. A freshman at Michigan State University, Knoles won the Bayview Junior Riverfest Regatta Laser Radial division this summer. She lives in Grosse Ile. The other local skipper, Angela Scheibner, of Grosse Pointe, will compete here this weekend and then head to San Diego next weekend for the U.S. Women's Sailing Championship, another US SAILING national event.