NZL Sailing Team - Kiwi crews improve in tricky sailing at 470 Worlds

by Sail-World.com on 14 Oct 2015 Day 2 of racing has just wrapped up at the 2015 470 World Champs underway now in Haifa, Israel featuring both NZL Sailing Team 470 crews.

Both managed to improve their overall standing after today’s racing, despite the day being described as patchy and challenging. The regatta is in its second day with the crews sailing in the Qualification Round. The mens fleet is split into two fleets Blue and Yellow, with the Women sailing in a single fleet.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox took a race win today and have climbed to 12th place in the men’s fleet improving three positions.

The NZL Sailing Team's Mens 470 crew sailed two races and now have five on the score board. Kiwis Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox opened the day with a bullet, the followed that with an 11th in the second race of the day to lift their overall position to 12th.

'Nice to get a race win today!' said Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox on their Facebook page.

'We are happy with 11th in the second race after getting caught on the wrong side of a shift and getting an annoying penalty on the downwind. Tomorrow we go in to the final gold series in 12th place. The points are close and conditions should be similar'

Lying seventh at the end of the opening day Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie are up into fourth after placing 10th and fifth in their two races sailed on Day 2.

Jo Aleh describes the day; “Rather tricky sailing today. We made things about as hard for ourselves as we could with some truly terrible first beats, but we held our composure and had some great catch ups.”

“We ended up with a 10th and a fifth, not a great day, but from where we were half-way up the first leg each time it still felt pretty good to finish with those two results.”

Aleh, who is popular with the Israeli locals due to family her family connection to the nation, says that Haifa is providing unique challenges as a sailing venue;

“It’s going to be a long tough regatta by the looks of it! 40 boats and light winds with a nasty choppy wave state, makes for tricky sailing and I am going to guess some rather big score-lines by the end of the week.”

Ahead on the leader board are overnight leaders Agnieszka Skrzypulec and Irmina Mrozek Gliszczynska of Poland who hold firm in the lead, able to discard their 36th from race four. Defending World Champions Lara Vadlau and Jola Ogar (AUT) up their game to score a second and a first and accelerate to second overall. Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark (GBR) maintain third place on the scoreboard.

The kiwi Olympic champions won’t be changing their usual game plan. “We will just go and try again tomorrow, and see if we can keep the overall number of the day decreasing.”

At the end of the Qualification Round the Mens Fleet will be seeded into Gold and Silver fleets with the Women continuing in a single fleet.


2015 470 World Championships - NZL Sailing Team’s current standings

4th Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (2, 17, 10, 5)
12th Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox (9, 4, 10, 1, 11)

Full results click here


What else is on this year?

New Zealand’s Olympic 470 sailors aren’t the only ones yet to contest their 2015 World Championship titles with the 49er, 49erFX,RS:X, Finn and Laser Radial classes also scheduled to sail their respective World Champs within the next two months.

2015 49er and 49erFX World Championships
Dates: 16-21 November 2015
Venue: Buenos Aries, Argentina
Featuring: Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech and a handful of up and coming kiwi 49er crews including Logan Dunning-Beck and Jack Simpson, Markus Somerville and Aaron Hume-Merry, Isaac McHardie and Trent Rippey

2015 RS:X World Championships
Dates: 19-24 October 2015
Venue: Al Mussanah, Oman
Featuring: Natalia Kosinska and Jon Paul Tobin

2015 Finn Gold Cup
Dates: 24-29 November 2015
Venue: Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand
Featuring: Andrew Murdoch, Josh Junior and plenty more local and international sailors

Laser Radial World Championships
Dates: 20-26 November 2015
Venue: Al Mussanah, Oman
Featuring: Sara Winther, Susannah Pyatt