Postcard from Valencia- 420 Worlds Day 3 - Kiwis win race

by Rob Burn on 26 Jul 2013 Rob Burn reports from second day of the World 420 Championships, in Valencia, Spain:

Buenos Dias Mes Amigos

Winning and Penalties, crucial moments in Day 1 of Racing.

The two Courses are far, far apart. The Girls launched later and finished an hour earlier so this humble writer is reliant on second hand information on what happened on Course Alpha, the Girls.

The Open Course, Bravo, took sailors and coaches much longer than anticipated to reach, the new venture of Burn Gibbs Charters even had to tow out an Aussie who was not going to make it. Coach Shelley Hesson had all four Open Fleet Kiwi boats out and ready to go.

Flight starts were in Yellow, then Blue, then Red, we had sailors in each flight so the Kiwi support boat, our luxury length Rib, anchored up off the Start Boat and watched all the Starts before moved across to the middle of the Course were we could see all Flights on different parts of the Course.

Regatta nerves saw every flight have several General Recalls, even under Black Flag. There were several very disappointed sailors who sat out the races, fortunately no Kiwis.

The days highlight was undoubtedly Sam Barnett and Zak Merton winning Race 2 of Blue Flight. They got across to the left, picked the shift and hit the front, and lead all the way to the Finish, holding off a strong challenge from the Italians who were closing fast. With a first race placing of 9th, even with a malfunction on their boom, they finished the day very strongly on 6th overall.

Back to the penalties.....on the Girls Course Liv Mackay and Abby Goodwin had a solid start with a 13th and 14th, putting them in 22nd. Eliza Wilkinson and Julia Francis not so fortunate with a not so good race first up, but the second Race was much better, in around 12th until receiving a Yellow Flag Penalty in tight racing, meaning two turns and dropping back to 27th. At least they know they can do it. They are 61st overall.

Taylor Burn and Henry Gibbs followed the Spanish race leader in the first race of Red Flight out to a big lead but on the last downwind, three other boats were closing in, our boys got a Yellow Flag penalty, did their turns and dropped to 5th. They gained one place back to finish strongly in 4th.

Their second race was a disaster, missing a wind shift that put them on the wrong side and rounding the first downwind mark in 33rd. At the mark of the last down wind they had fought back to 12th but infringed rounding the gate mark to the Reach for the Finish. Rather than incur a Protest, they did their penalty turns, finally finishing in 19th. The positives are they are going fast. Taylor and Henry are now sitting at 30th overall.

The weather conditions were sunny and warm, 7-8 knots, building to 10-11 knots in the second race, one course change and a few good swings that caught many out.

Annabel Cave and Sam Bullock had two good starts and improved from 19th in Race 1, Yellow flight, to 15th in Race two. Another solid start considering the experience of Annabelle on the helm. They are 53rd after two races.

Taylor Balogh and Sam Lee didn't have the best day with a 23rd and 29th. It is tough stuff out there for a Helm at his first Worlds. They are sitting at 75th.

We all look forward to a great day from all our sailors tomorrow.

In the Open Fleet it is Italy, Brazil then Spain at the top of the Leader board, in the Girls fleet Italy, France, and Spain lead so far.

Full results and commentary, videos etc on http://www.420sailing.org/event-v2.asp?eventid=124480