NZL Sailing Team with ETNZ dominate the RBYAC on Day 3

by Jodie Bakewell-White on 4 Sep 2013
The NZL Sailing Team with ETNZ, sponsored by Rodd & Gunn, made a clean sweep with two race wins on day three of the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup breaking away from the pack and opening an 11 point lead in the standings.

New Zealand now occupies the top two spots on the leader board with the second kiwi entry, FMJ Racing, sharing second place locked on points with American Youth Force Sailing as the regatta progresses to the final day.

The textbook performance from Peter Burling and the NZL Sailing Team with ETNZ crew earned them the maximum 20 points on offer on day three of the regatta, while mixed results from the other nine teams helped to increase the differential on the points table.

Furthermore a decision from the Jury released yesterday afternoon saw the NZL Sailing Team awarded redress for race two (sailed on day one) after a malfunction with their on board penalty light forced the crew to slow their boat for longer than necessary following a boundary infringement. The team’s result for that race was adjusted giving them an extra two points.

Today Burling and his crew benefitted from two excellent starts; 'We felt the angle was pretty good off the pin, and all the other boats were setting up really high both times so we thought we’d cruise down to where there was no traffic and get a good angle and that worked out really well for us both times,' explains the skipper Peter Burling.

He continues; 'We had a chat last night about the boat handling and the little things that were going wrong, so it was really good to get that nice and polished for today.'

Despite stepping out a nice lead the team are aware they must remain focussed with another day of racing to come including the heavily weighted double points race eight.

'More of the same,' says Burling of tomorrow’s game plan. 'We’re just trying to take each race as it comes. We’re really happy with just chipping away and being consistent.'

Tomorrow there are two races scheduled – race seven worth the same points as all the previous races, followed by the final race of the regatta worth double points. Whoever is at the top of the standings after that will take the title of Red Bull Youth America’s Cup Champions.

Red Bull Youth America’s Cup standings after day three

1 NZL Sailing with ETNZ - 50
2 Full Metal Jacket Racing - 39
3 American Youth Sailing Force - 39
4 Swedish Youth Challenge - 38
5 ROFF/Cascais Sailing Team - 35
6 Team Tilt - 33
7 Next World Energy - 32
8 Objective Australia - 30
9 All In Racing - 28
10 USA45 Racing - 11

The regatta, being sailed in the AC45 wing sailed catamarans, runs across four consecutive days starting Sunday September 1st. There will be two fleet races sailed each day starting at 1100 hours local time in San Francisco, each intended to be around 25 minutes long with a 30 minute break in between.

Using a high point scoring system, the first seven races have equal points weighting with 10 points for first, 9 points for second and so on. The final eighth race is worth double points.

The NZL Sailing Team with ETNZ includes Peter Burling, Blair Tuke, Jono Spurdle, Guy Endean, Andy Maloney, Sam Meech and Jason Saunders.

Follow the NZL Sailing Team with ETNZ via…
facebook.com/NZLSailingTeam and yachtingnz.org.nz