New Zealand top Mixed crew at Nacra Infusion Worlds

by Sail-World on 13 Feb 2013
The New Zealand crew of Brett Sellers and Vicky Francis have finished as top Mixed crew in the Nacra Infusion Worlds, sailed at Southport Yacht Club on Australia's Gold Coast. They were sixth in the 21 boat fleet.

A second New Zealand crew, Miranda Powrie and Tomer Simhony finised 10th in the Nacra Infusion regatta.

They also competed in the F18 (Open Cat) Australian Nationals, with the Nacra Infusion being within the parameters for the Open title, which attracted a bigger and more competitive fleet.

The Nacra Infusion is regarded as close sister to the Nacra 17 which is to be used as the Multihull for the the 2016 Olympics, and will be sailed with a Mixed (male and female) crew, in Rio de Janeiro.

Although they had little in the way of recent racing practice, Sellers and Francis improved steadily throughout the World series, and in the latter stages of the series place second in the Open fleet. Their discard place was the first race of the 12 race series.

Top Aussie cat sailors Jason Waterhouse, Rod Waterhouse, Brett Goodall, Adam Beashel all competed in the F18 Championship. Also participating was Krystal Weir, double Australian Olympic representative, in the Laser Radial, who placed 25th overall in the five race series. In the Open F18 fleet Sellers and Francis finished 8th out of a fleet of 36 and were again the top Mixed Multihull crew, and third Nacra Infusion crew, Open or Mixed.

Powrie and Simhony also placed second in one race in the Open fleet, but were pulled down the points table by some double digit scores. In the F18 Championship event, they placed 20th overall.

http://www.southportyachtclub.com.au/results/2013/events/f18nacra/SGrp1.htm!Click_here for full results

http://www.southportyachtclub.com.au/page104.html!World_Championship_website