Peter Burling and Blair Tuke in action © OnEdition
by Jodie Bakewell-White
Weymouth, UK provided for a full schedule of racing on day two of 2011 Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta where the NZL Sailing Team is currently competing. Overall it was a solid day for much of the team.
RS:X Men: Of the kiwis the star of the day was Jon-Paul Tobin who came away with two bullets in racing overnight to move to the top of the RS:X Men’s leader board. On 10 points, Tobin is three clear of Taehoon Lee (KOR) in second place with Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED) also scoring two race wins overnight, in third position.
Tom Ashley placed 8th and 8th in last night’s two races to lie 6th overall.
Four races have now been sailed with a total of eleven possible.
Finn: Dan Slater opened the series with a win on day one, and last night he backed that up with another gun in race two of the series. A 10th in the second race of the day sees him slip from the top of the Finn leader board, and into 3rd overall.
Ben Ainslie (GBR) moves to the top of the board on equal points with Ivan Gaspic Kljkoviv (CRO) while Slater is just two points adrift.
Star: Also lying top five in their fleet is the NZL Sailing Team Star crew of Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk. Adding two races overnight the 41-strong Star fleet have now sailed three in total with the kiwis in 5th place at the end of day two with a card that reads 14, 3, 10.
Brazil’s Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada are out in front with a five point gap to second place.
Laser: Three races were sailed overnight in both the Laser and Radial fleets effectively mixing things up in the standings.
Andrew Murdoch overtakes Andy Maloney as the best placed of the six strong kiwi contingent in the Laser class with a 3rd, a win and a 4th on the water last night. With this performance he rockets from 25th up to 6th on the board.
Maloney was 9th, 5th and 19th in his three races and now sits in 11th position. Further back Mike Bullot is in 18th, Josh Junior in 21st (with a 2nd in race three of the day), and Sam Meech is in 33rd.
Women’s 470: Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie sailed well on day two at Sail for Gold placing 2nd and 7th in their two races however after suffering a DSQ in race two from day one the pair are lying in 10th overall. Consistency and no further hiccups are required from here for the kiwi girls improve further.
49er: Peter Burling and Blair Tuke should be content with their 10th, 2nd and 6th, which sees them move from 33rd up into the top ten of the 49er fleet.
The Sibello brothers of Italy continue to reign at the top of the fleet, but with three races possible a day in the quick fire 49er and another four days of competition there is plenty of race track remaining.
Radial: Sara Winther is in 12th place in the Laser Radial coming home 8th, 10th and 10th in her three races on day two.
Elsewhere
On the Men’s 470 course Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders improve from 33rd up to 24th in the standings. Natalia Kosinska remains the best of the kiwis in the Women’s RS:X lying 16th. Tim Dempsey and Jan Apel are in 7th place in the SKUD18 Paralympic class.
2011 Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta
New Zealand’s provisional standings after day two
470 Women (45 entries)
10th Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie
470 Men (77 entries)
24th Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders
49er (63 entries)
10th Peter Burling and Blair Tuke
Finn
3rd Dan Slater
18th Matt Coutts
45th Bradley Douglas
Laser (123 entries)
6th Andrew Murdoch
11th Andy Maloney
18th Mike Bullot
21st Josh Junior
33rd Sam Meech
104th Spencer Loxton
Radial
12th Sara Winther
40th Miranda Powrie
Women’s Match Racing
Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen and Susannah Pyatt (Group C – 1 win/6 losses)
RS:X Men (86 entries)
1st JP Tobin
6th Tom Ashley
80th Carl Evans
RS:X Women (59 entries)
16th Natalia Kosinska
30th Stephanie Williams
40th Justina Sellers
44th Jazmine Lynch
Star (41 entries)
5th Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk
2.4 metre (34 entries)
21st Joshua McKenzie-Brown
SKUD18 (17 entries)
7th Tim Dempsey and Jan Apel
About this regatta:
Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta is the sixth event in the 2010-11 ISAF Sailing World Cup series and given this is the venue for the 2012 Olympic Games Sailing Regatta the entry list is long and star-studded. Everyone is doing their homework on Weymouth!
Here are the numbers:
752 Entries
62 Nations
1067 Athletes
314 Coaches
Yachting New Zealand
Skandia Sail for Gold
