Sail-World.com NZ Olympic Regatta News from Day 8 to Day 10

by . on 19 Aug 2016 Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand Olympic edition e-magazine for August 18, 2016, coming to you from the Rio Olympic Regatta

By the time you read this, Sail-World will be reporting again from the Media Centre and then heading out on the water for what promises to be on of the great days, if not the greatest day in New Zealand Olympic sailing history.

By a quirk of the weather, with the wind being a no-show despite handing the race-office its boarding pass, yesterday's Medal Races in the Mens and Womens 470 were re-scheduled for today, along with the Medal races for the 49er and 49erFX.

Unless you have been in a coma for the last two days, you will be aware that the New Zealand crew of Blair Tuke and Peter Burling have already won the Gold medal without needing points from the Medal race, which they must start. They are one of three crews who have achieved this feat at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Sam Meech won New Zealand's first sailing medal two days ago in another four-race Finals day, in the Mens Laser class. Our best performance to date in this highly competitive Olympic class.

Even without their two maximum points scoring races, Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie would not be on the same happy state of being able to just go out for a yacht in the Medal race. With both their win and 6th place re-instated - they would still have been 6pts ahead of the British crew in the overall standings, and would need to sail today, and finish no worse than third, had the British won the double points Medal race.

Yesterday Sail-World caught up with Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie in the Mixed Zone on the beach by the Medal Presentation area, instead of the usual interview spot in front of the media centre in Marina da Gloria.

It was a different meeting to our last, when they had come ashore from a long tow in from the Atlantic Ocean, having a win and a UFD on their scorecard - their second penalty of the regatta - which all but dropped them out of Medal contention - well it would for most crews.

Now they are sailing well, in fact have been all series - and have four race wins to their credit.

'It was an exciting day', said Aleh in a sarcastic tone of their three hour zephyr assisted drift around Gaunabara Bay waiting fir the wind which never arrived. If you went slightly up into the top corner of the Bay, you got the sewerage smell, which is just delightful. There was more garbage in the bay today - the usual plastic bags moving along about a foot (300mm) below the surface - like a jellyfish. And hard to spot too, in the murky brown water.

'The forecast for today was for about 10-12kts as a seabreeze coming in around 1.00pm,' explained Sarah Powrie.

'When we went out there they must have known it was coming - but it physically didn't,' Aleh chipped in.

Turning back to the previous day, we filled in the gap from when we last spoke.

'It was a big day with three races,' Powrie recalled. 'We just took each race as it came - for a 1,1,4 result.'

'It was a good day - we just battled back a bit, ' Aleh added.

'We had 11-16kts on the Bridge course (the most northern course) of those used on Guanabara Bay. It was fairly choppy - a good racetrack. We had never been there before - it was nice to get out on there,' Aleh mused.

'We had trained there, but not sailed there this regatta.'

'The wind is very steady there but it is very choppy (probably caused by the tidal flow, as the area is near-landlocked) and you have to get on the right side of the course. The current turns on the side , but not in the middle,' Powrie adds.

Aleh puts their success on the course, on what was a make or break day for the defending Olympic Champions, down to a good breeze, sailing good first beats. 'We are quick enough downwind, and we are sailing well. Each part of the race was well executed and that gives you consistent results.

'They are long enough races, three laps that you can catch up. We were a bit deep in the last one, but were able to catch back up.

'In the first two races we got the jump on the first beat, but it wasn't until the third beat that we were able to pull through in the last one,' explained Powrie.

When we last spoke after Race 7, Aleh kept repeating the mantra of just focussing on what they had to do to win the next race, as their ladder out of the hole that had been created by a controversial disqualification in the opening race of the regatta, and then by equally controversial starting infringement disqualification.

'We just tried not to get any more letters in our score!' Powrie laughed, responding to a question about their pre-race strategy on the penultimate day.

'It is not too dissimilar to what we have been doing all week. But we were conscious that we wanted to get some results on the board and not more letters.'

Aleh and Powrie are notorious for their muppet-races - where they have brain-explosions usually once a series, really score badly, and then recover from that almost immediately - like closing the door on an untidy bedroom.

'I wouldn't have called them muppets at all,' Aleh retorts.

'We wouldn't have changed anything in those two races (Races 1 and 6). It was a tight call on the protest and a tight call on the OCS. We won the OCS/UFD race and were sixth in the protest race. If it weren't for those results (or even one of them) we would be looking pretty nice.'

(By Sail-World's maths with the OCS/UFD win factored in they would be equal on points for the Gold medal going into the medal race, and with both results re-instated and the true discard taken into account they would be 6pts in the lead going into the Medal race - meaning they could be three places behind the British crew in the double scoring medal race and still have won.)

The Kiwis filed a redress claim on the OCS penalty, but it was dismissed for being lodged, which is a bit hard as the sailors did not get the opportunity to review the video tape of the start until the morning after the race, and lodged their claim straight after seeing the video.

(Under the protest rules there is a set time - usually two hours after the last boat has finished for redress and protest claims to be lodged. All that needs to be done is for a claim to be lodged identifying the time and location of the incident, and identifying the nature of the incident - and the rest can follow later at the Hearing. Miss filing this simple information in time and you risk getting thrown out on a protest technicality, which is what happened.)

'We couldn't get access to to video footage until the next morning,' said Aleh. 'We got the video overnight and tried to put the protest in next day - but the Jury wouldn't look at it.'

While there is a provision for extension of time, obviously the Jury felt that the Kiwis (and Brits) knew of the nature of the incident within the time limit, and as they failed to file within that limit, then the Jury would not use their discretion and extend.

'It was worth a shot,' said Powrie. 'We listened to the tape and they got us just on the starting gun. The called our number in just after the start gun - it was that close.'

For the rescheduled Medal Race Powrie and Aleh are expecting more breeze - 'if it arrives', they quip.

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Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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