by Craig Heydon
Australian sailors have had a successful day two of
the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup on Lake Garda in Italy, with a number
of crews working their way up the leader board.
Tom Burton has extended his lead in the Laser class and has been joined in the top five by fellow Australian Ryan Palk.
Burton started the day one point ahead of Croatia’s
Tonci Stipanovic with a seventh, a first and a second allowing the
current world number one to move three points clear at the top of the
table.
Ryan Palk has moved up from his overnight ninth to be fifth overall following three top six results on Lake Garda.
Palk’s results improved as the day progressed,
finishing race one in sixth, race two in fourth and the final race of
the day in third. The Queenslander is currently two points off the
podium and a further five behind Burton.
Matthew Wearn has also moved up the Laser class leader board, ending day two in 11th position, with Luke Elliott in 25th and Jared West 36th.
In the Nacra 17 mixed multihull class Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin are sixth overall after a 10th and a fifth in Thursday’s two races.
“Today was a solid day with light, tricky,
conditions again seeing mixed results however we managed to maintain our
sixth position overall,” said Waterhouse. “We’re much happier with our
boat speed than we were last month and think we’re
starting to solve a few issues that we had at our last regatta.
“We’re on track for our goal of making the medal race and can’t wait for tomorrow’s racing,” he said.
New pairing Euan McNicol and Lucinda Whitty have
moved up two positions to be eighth overall in their first Nacra 17
event, after a fifth and a 13th.
Fellow multihull sailors Josh McKnight and Nina Curtis were 16th and 14th in the two Nacra 17 races on Thursday and are in 16th position overall.
Elise Rechichi and Sarah Cook picked up their first
European race win together in the 470 women’s class, with a first and a
second moving them up to sixth overall. The pair didn’t finish the
final race of the day.
Fellow Australians Sasha and Jaime Ryan are currently 10th overall, finishing seventh in the opening race of the day but failing to finish the final two.
In the 470 men’s class brothers Matthew and Robert
Crawford are currently third overall, recovering from a DNF in race one
to cross the line fifth in race two and seventh in race three.
Oliver Tweddell is currently 18th in the Finn fleet following a long day on the water with four races completed.
Tweddell was 16th, 27th, 18th and 44th in the four races, with Jake Lilley ending the day 26th and Dirk Seret 51st.
“It was an extremely tough day on the water,” said
Tweddell. “I started off the day well, leading race one, but one mistake
was enough to cost me the race. The breeze started to get really funky
after that, and we sailed in some marginal
breeze to get four races in.
“The lake certainly punishes you big time for every
mistake you make, no matter how little it may seem,” he said. “I was
experiencing this quite a bit today and am looking forward to addressing
this tomorrow.
“I’m glad I made the gold fleet after my
performance today, it gives me some time to regroup and try to get my
head around the lake for the rest of the regatta,” said Tweddell.
Paris Stowell is the leading Australian in the RS:X
women’s class, finishing day two sixth overall, with Annalise Gilbert
in ninth. Patrick Vos is 16th in the RS:X men’s fleet.
Full results can be found by clicking
here.
For more information on the Australian Sailing Team visit
www.australiansailingteam.com.
EUROSAF Garda Trentino Week
