Eurosaf Champions Sailing Cup - Successful day 2 for Australians

by Craig Heydon on 10 May 2013 During the second day of the 2013 Eurosaf Champions Sailing Cup on Lake Garda, in Italy, Australian sailors have had a successful day, with a number of crews working their way up the leaderboard.

Tom Burton has extended his lead in the Laser class and has been joined in the top five by fellow Australian Ryan Palk.

Burton started the day one point ahead of Croatia’s Tonci Stipanovic with a seventh, a first and a second allowing the current world number one to move three points clear at the top of the table.

Ryan Palk has moved up from his overnight ninth to be fifth overall following three top six results on Lake Garda.

Palk’s results improved as the day progressed, finishing race one in sixth, race two in fourth and the final race of the day in third. The Queenslander is currently two points off the podium and a further five behind Burto

Matthew Wearn has also moved up the Laser class leader board, ending day two in 11th position, with Luke Elliott in 25th and Jared West 36th.

In the Nacra 17 mixed multihull class Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin are sixth overall after a 10th and a fifth in Thursday’s two races.

'Today as the second day of the championship the conditions were light and tricky but despite this we maintained our sixth position overall,' said Waterhouse'We’re much happier with our boat speed than we were last month and think we’re starting to solve a few issues that we had at our last regatta.

'We’re on track for our goal of making the medal race and can’t wait for tomorrow’s racing,' he said.

New pairing Euan McNicol and Lucinda Whitty have moved up two positions to be eighth overall in their first Nacra 17 event, after a fifth and a 13th.

Fellow multihull sailors Josh McKnight and Nina Curtis were 16th and 14th in the two Nacra 17 races on Thursday and are in 16th position overall.

Elise Rechichi and Sarah Cook picked up their first European race win together in the 470 women’s class, with a first and a second moving them up to sixth overall. The pair didn’t finish the final race of the day

Fellow Australians Sasha and Jaime Ryan are currently 10th overall, finishing seventh in the opening race of the day but failing to finish the final two.

In the 470 men’s class brothers Matthew and Robert Crawford are currently third overall, recovering from a DNF in race one to cross the line fifth in race two and seventh in race three.

Oliver Tweddell is currently 18th in the Finn fleet following a long day on the water with four races completed.

Tweddell was 16th, 27th, 18th and 44th in the four races, with Jake Lilley ending the day 26th and Dirk Seret 51st.

'It was an extremely tough day on the water,' said Tweddell. 'I started off the day well, leading race one, but one mistake was enough to cost me the race. The breeze started to get really funky after that, and we sailed in some marginal breeze to get four races in.

'The lake certainly punishes you big time for every mistake you make, no matter how little it may seem,' he said. 'I was experiencing this quite a bit today and am looking forward to addressing this tomorrow.

'I’m glad I made the gold fleet after my performance today, it gives me some time to regroup and try to get my head around the lake for the rest of the regatta,' said Tweddell.

Paris Stowell is the leading Australian in the RS:X women’s class, finishing day two sixth overall, with Annalise Gilbert in ninth. Patrick Vos is 16th in the RS:X men’s fleet.

For more information on the Australian Sailing Team visit the Australian Team website