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14:14 Tuesday 11 Aug 2015 Sue Pelling/CWLReigning XOD winning female skipper goes for hat-trick

Gemma and Simon Osgood looking forward to a 'normal' day on the water tomorrow.

Two previous wins means the pressure is on for female skipper Gemma Osgood for this year’s XOD Ladies Bowl. This trophy, presented highest placed female helmsman, overall, is one of the key awards within the class, so to win it twice (in 2011 and 2014) is impressive.

Osgood (31) who is sailing with her husband Simon, on Sox, a 1967-built boat, says although they’ve enjoyed the week so far, they’ve had a few mishaps which have had a bit of a detrimental effect on results.

“On Saturday our third crew member – Jamie Lea – had to jump off the boat about an hour after the start because his wife went into labour. The good news is they now have a little girl named Imogen. We sailed two up on Sunday, then had a bit of an incident, which resulted in us losing our mast yesterday.

“In some ways, today’s race abandonment, gives us a little more time to sort ourselves out and we hope to have a new mast tomorrow.”

Consequently, Team Sox, results have suffered this week, but they are determined to continue and hopefully improve their overall performance.

Gemma concluded: “We put our previous wins at this event down to good crew work, and consistent peformance. For us I think having a settled team, who have been sailing together since 2011 really helps, plus we always try to do as many events leading up to Cowes Week as possible. We had some reasonable results in predominantly a male-dominated fleet, so we are happy with that.

“However, the overall standard of competition for this trophy is a lot higher now particularly with the Eglin sisters, Penny and Cordelia, both competing. This has really raised the game and presented a good challenge for all.”