470 Junior Worlds- Italy and Netherlands cement their lead on Day 2

by Richard Gladwell + NZ 470 Assoc on 29 Jan 2012
The Italian crew of Simon Kosuta and Jas Farneti have finished at the top of the leaderboard after two days racing in the 470 Junior World Championships being sailed off Takapuna, Auckland City.

Conditions for the racing were bleak, despite it being the height of the New Zealand summer, with cold offshore breezes, and leaden skies.

Kosuta and Farneti won the two races sailed today, in what was generally an incident free day - with only one general recall being signalled on the start of the second race, and the fleet of 31 yachts from 13 countries was on the shore, in the early afternoon.

The first New Zealand crew are in second overall, with James Turner and Finn Drummond moving up into second place after discards were taken into account.

Third overall is Derk Bernen and Rogier Weijers from Netherlands.

In the Womens event being sailed in conjunction with the Mens and Open event, Afrodite Kyranakou and Jeske Kispers of Netherlands lead overall.

Winds peaked at nearby Bean Rock at 30kts later in the afternoon, but the junior crews handled the conditions well with close racing throughout the single fleet

Sivitz and Farneti (ITA) added another two winning races to their score today in conditions which seemed to suit them very well. 'We worked the right after seeing it was better before the start. Wind was similar direction to yesterday. We have good speed and really enjoying the Mackay charter boat.'

From early morning the Waitemata Harbour was covered in whitecaps, and gusts of up to 20 knots were came across the race course which was set between Rangitoto Island and the shore. No sun broke through the leaden sky, the breeze built increasingly through the day and continued it's shifty and cool blow from the south.

The French crew sailed well and did battle with the Italian leaders to gain a second placing in one race today, but also suffered a black flag, and were disqualified for an early start which keeps them out of the top five contenders.

Anticipating the shifts is always a challenge and today second placed crew James Turner and Finn Drummond (below) of New Zealand 'took our chances and had some great comebacks' , a pair of third placings puts them five points behind the leaders. Dirk Bennen and Rogier Weijers of the Netherlands are placed third and though race four wasn't one their best, the dropped score came in and put them ahead of early race leaders, the Matthew and Robert Crawford of Australia, on count back.

Afrodite Kyranakou and Jeske Kisters of the Netherlands hold onto their lead with the slimmest of margins after Annika Bochmann and Elisabeth Panuschka (below) of Germany came away with two wins within the women's fleet, and were pleased to have been footing it with the men in the overall standings 'finally we're in the front of the overall fleet, finished 7th overall in the last race. Reaching was tricky, we hoisted later allowing us to lay while others behind had to blow their halyard'. British crew Anna Burnet and Flora Stewart are placed third after placing third in both races.

The regatta has another five days to go, and with 12 races scheduled followed by a medal race for both the Women's fleet and the Open/Mixed fleet we are still in the early stages of the competition. The forecast for tomorrow is continuing south westerlies of 20-30 knots easing on Monday to 15 knots, following this the maritime forecast is predicting a change to around to the north, so sailors will get a taste of a range of conditions through the regatta.

The full results can be viewed by http://www.470sailing.org.nz/470JW%27s/JWresults.htm!clicking_here