NZL Sailing Team - Kiwis lose lead after protest in 49er Europeans

by Sail-World.com on 12 Jul 2015 Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have relinquished their overall lead with one day to go at the 2015 49er European Championships being staged in Porto, Portugal, while New Zealand has closed out the women’s 49erFX Championship with two top ten placings.

Three races were sailed today for the 49er gold fleet off Porto and while Burling and Tuke’s on water results placed them at the top of the standings, they’ve subsequently been relegated to third overall after a successful protest following racing.

The protest came from Australian’s Nathan Outteridge and Ian Jensen and sees Burling and Tuke score a DSQ for today’s second race. A deep finish – 21st in the next race – must now be counted and suddenly the kiwis points lead evaporates and they’re left five points behind the leaders.

The chances of the New Zealand crew breaking their string of 17 consecutive regatta wins, since the 2012 Olympics, is now very real.

The Kiwis started badly in the final race of the day, crossing the sterns of the starboard tackers, following the eventual race winner from Germany. However the Kiwi woes were compounded after another boat tacked on their air as they were trying to recover, and their fate was largely sealed.

Without the protest they could have dropped the 21st place, and would have been in the lead going into the final day with a seven point advantage.

Commentators identified poor starting as being an issue for the New Zealanders, today - and their ability to sail through the fleet was severely tested.

“We had a pretty tough day today,” says Peter Burling. “There’s still plenty to play for, and these tough days are going to help us get to the end goal.”

“We will take as many learnings as we can out of today first of all,” says Burling about how they’ll be preparing for the final day. “There’s a lot of little technical tweaks you can do to the boat to make it suit the conditions, and then we’ve just got to go and race around the track slightly quicker than someone else.”

With four races planned tomorrow, including three finals and a Douro River medal race, the scene is set for a dramatic final day.

While Outteridge and Jensen lead (on 70 points) they’ll face tough competition tomorrow with another five crews, (including Burling and Tuke), within nine points and well in the hunt for the title and the podium.

Tomasz Januszewski and Jacek Nowak (POL) lie second overall on 71 points while Burling and Tuke are on 75 points. John Pink and Stuart Bithell (GBR) were also disqualified in today’s second race and consequently drop well down the ranks to eighth.

Racing for the 2015 49erFX European Championships wrapped up today, the women sailing three finals races on the open ocean off the coast of Portugal, with the top ten then proceeding to the Duoro River for a spectator friendly medal race, which featured two kiwi crews.

Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech have ended the regatta in sixth overall. In today’s racing they placed sixth, ninth and 11th then saved their best for the tricky river conditions taking a second place in the medal race.

Young up-and-comer crew Erica Dawson (Murrays Bay Sailing Club) and Ellie Copeland (Wakatere Boating Club) experienced their first ever high octane Olympic class international medal race impressing through the week to earn their place in the top ten. They finished 10th in the medal race and 10th overall.

Tomrrow’s forecast is for medium airs, and you can watch all the action on the live TV broadcast which is scheduled for the start of racing on Sunday at 1025am local time. Tune in and watch the drama by clicking here

2015 49er European Championships current standings…

3rd Peter Burling and Blair Tuke
28th (3rd Silver Fleet) Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski

49erFX Final Results
6th Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech
10th Erica Dawson and Ellie Copeland

For full results for the 49er click here and for the 49erFX click here