New Zealand 420 team report from Worlds in Lake Garda.

by www.420sailing.org.nz on 3 Aug 2009
The New Zealand 420 team is competing in the 420 Worlds in Lake Garda.

We feature the following reports from the class website:

Day 4 - for full results on the team

With one result counting from the qualifying series, and another four races completed positions on the leader board now become interesting. Alexanda Maloney and Bianca Barbarich-Bacher competed in their final qualifying race and two of the final series overnight and now sit in second position. In the men's fleet Frankie and Finn's OCS put's them back into 10th, but their 1st and 5th still puts them in the running for a top position.

James Munro has provided some photos taken from the lake's edge, and Frankie has taken time out on the lay day to provide a report on he and Finn's first two days of racing, see below.

Women's fleet
1 BRA 51822 Martine Grael, Daniela Adler 12,0 3 2 7
2 NZL 52576 Alexandra Maloney, Bianca Barbarich-Bacher 15,0 1 8 6
3 ITA 53884 Camilla Marino, Claudia Soricelli 19,0 2 5 12
4 GER 53127 Nadine Böhm, Caroline Tiegel 25,0 23 1 1

Men's fleet

01 GRE 53161 Antonios Tsimpoukelis, George Karonis 31,0 3 25 1 2
02 ITA 53838 Giovanni Meloni, Alessandro Gemini 37,0 8 5 2 22
03 GBR 53116 Ben Palmer, Konrad Weaver 40,0 13 9 11 7
04 ITA 53583 Davide Ortelli, Leonardo Zaggia 41,0 15 14 9 3
05 GBR 52759 Phil Sparks, Ben Gratton 52,0 1 17 23 11
06 GER 53735 Julian Autenrieth, Philipp Autenrieth 55,0 21 2 7 25
07 FRA 53572 Gabriel Skoczek, Thibault Soler 57,0 7 3 5 42
08 ITA 53586 Davide Vignone, Matteo Ramian 60,0 16 12 31 1
09 ARG 52855 Pablo Völker, Agustin Cunill Martínez 70,0 27 10 16 17
10 NZL 52550 Francisco Lardies, Finn Drummond 72,0 4 1 ocs 5

Report of day 1 and Day 2 - Frankie Lardies

Day 1
The first day was a typical Lake Garda day with the offshore breeze dying out early as we were towed out in glassy conditions waiting for the southerly Ora wind to build and come down the lake.

Race 1: Started in 8-14 kts with a building breeze, we had a good start at the boat and managed to tack into a big lift in the cliffs allowing us to be in second at the top mark. Some spinnaker problems during the hoist lost us 3 places but good boat speed and tactical decisions allowed us to chip away at the boats and end up 2nd for the first race.

Race 2: Started in the full Ora breeze of around 18 knots causing a lot of congestion at the boat end of the line with us getting stuck right in the middle and unable to get a lane out to the right hand side. At the to mark we were truly buried in the 30’s but being very fast downwind in pumping conditions allowed us to catch up during the outer loop to finish 16th.

Race 3: was again in the full Ora breeze and once again we were unable to get a clear start to be in the 30’s again at the top mark. Good speed downwind combined with an exceptional 2nd beat pulled us into the top 15 by the second top mark and we were able to climb to 8th place by the finish leaving us 6th overall for the day.

Day 2
Race 4: 6-14kts. An unusual offshore breeze was in for the whole day of between 6-16 knots. We had a phenomenal start with speed at the pin and led the fleet to the favoured left hand side of the course, rounding second at the top. We maintained this position on the downwind but on the second beat some boats got a big shift on the right and we finished 3rd

Race 5: 8-15kts. We had a good start but did not get out to the favoured side of the course early enough and rounded at the top about 15th and picked off boats on each leg to finish 9th

Race 6: 8-16ktsWe got an average start but managed to get a lane out right after dipping a few boats and got a good shift to round 4th at the top. We dropped back on the second beat unfortunately in some very patchy conditions to 9th at the finish

Overall we have made a solid start to the regatta and Garda has proved very difficult to master. Consistency has been key and we look forward to gold fleet starting tomorrow.

Day 2 - Womens Five of the six races have been sailed in the qualifying series, and Alexandra Maloney and Bianca Barbarich-Bacher maintain a healthy lead over the next two Italian crews. With the sixth race will come a drop and positions at the top could change, but Alex and Bianca are fairly assured of going into the Final series at the top of the board. Tomorrow is a lay day, the Qualifying series will be completed on Day 4.

1 NZL 52576 Alexandra Maloney, Bianca Barbarich-Bacher 12.0 2 1 1 5 3
2 ITA 53884 Camilla Marino, Claudia Soricelli 20.0 1 5 2 11 1
3 ITA 53705 Roberta Caputo, Benedetta Barbiero 27.0 6 6 3 3 9


Day 2 Men's fleet

The Qualifying series has been completed in the men's fleet and Frankie and Finn have moved up into fourth place. With Gold and Silver fleets now decided, we have three crews in the Gold: Frankie and Finn; Luke and Sam had a drop, a 10th and 6th to finish on a steady 14th overall; and James and Marcus who go through in 48th. In Silver are Alex and Sam who have a series of reasonable results for a young crew; and Logan and Ben who have had three places in the top twenty but are being sorely punished by two OCS calls.

1 GBR 52759 Phil Sparks, Ben Gratton 19,0 4 2 11 1 1 (23)
2 ITA 53577 Francesco Falcetelli, Gabriele Franciolini 20,0 1 7 4 4 (23) 4
3 GRE 53161 Antonios Tsimpoukelis, George Karonis 30,0 11 2 (dsq) 2 12 3
4 NZL 52550 Francisco Lardies, Finn Drummond 31,0 2 (16) 8 3 9 9

Day 1 Women's fleet: The 84 strong women's fleet is split into 4 flights, with the lone NZL women's crew, Alexandra Maloney and Bianca Barbarich-Bacher, in the same group as Martine Grael (with a different crew) winner of the Women's Youth Worlds. Alex and Bianca finished strongly in the Youth Worlds, and are continuing this form in the steady winds of Lake Garda with a 2,1,1. In second place are the Italian crew who placed 2nd at the Youth Worlds, with Martine and Claudia Soricelli in 3rd. Just as a point of interest, Martine and brother Marco spent several years in NZ and sailed Optimists out of Murrays Bay.

1 NZL 52576 Alexandra Maloney, Bianca Barbarich-Bacher 4.0 2 1 1
2 ITA 53884 Camilla Marino, Claudia Soricelli 8.0 1 5 2
3 BRA 51822 Martine Grael, Daniela Adler 9.0 3 4 2
4 FRA 53878 Maelen Lemaitre, Aloise Retornaz 14.0 7 3 4
5 ITA 53705 Roberta Caputo, Benedetta Barbiero 15.0 6 6 3

Men's fleet: This year the 420 Worlds fleet has record numbers, with 121 in the Open fleet. The fleet is slit into 4 flights, putting approximately 60 boats on the start line in the Men's fleet which is a challenge for any sailor. Frankie Lardies with Finn Drummond have had a strong start and are currently placed 6th in the Qualifying series. James Turner/Marcus Hansen and Luke Stevenson/Sam Bullock are in steady 16th & 17th positions; Alexander Munro/Sam Schofield are in 63rd while Logan Dunning-Beck/ Ben Goodwin are in 69th after an OCS in race 1.

With one more day of this initial series, the 5 boat strong team of NZ men's crews have 3 races to position themselves in the Gold or Silver fleet for the Final series. The Qualifying series result carries just one placing through to the Final series.

1 ITA 53870 Nicolo Briante, Giacomo Fossati 10.0 3 5 2