Strong start for NZL 49er teams at Sailing World Cup Final - Melbourne

by Yachting on 6 Dec 2016 The first day of racing for the Sailing World Cup Final in Melbourne kicked off today with 17 New Zealander’s competing across seven classes from the St Kilda Sailing Precinct.

A solid performance was shown by the New Zealand 49er Men’s teams in their 19-strong fleet, with all three pairs in the top five after the first days racing.

Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie (pictured above, Sailing Energy/World Sailing) took out the first two races, while they discard their 11th from the third race to lead the fleet. Just a few places behind them is Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey in third position, with Nick Egnot-Johnson and Jack Rogers finishing their first day in fifth.

“The fleet had seven to ten knots of breeze, with fairly unstable pressure and shifts anywhere from the South to the South-East which made racing tricky. It definitely wasn’t a one-way track today, and there have been lots of good learnings with some solid race management,” comments NZL 49er coach Jim Maloney.

He says the team has had a nice build up to the event in Melbourne, and is enjoying the racing following their training in Auckland.

Nacra 17 pair Olivia Mackay and Micah Wilkinson also had a good start in the 10-strong fleet with their string of results including two thirds and a second, leaving them in third place overall.

It was a mixed bag of results for kiwi sailors across the other classes, with three full days of racing yet to come before the medal race for the 49er’s, Nacra 17’s, and Formula Kites, and four days of racing for the Laser, Laser Radial, Finn and 470 fleets.

Racing continues Wednesday 7 December from 12:00 Melbourne time (14:00 NZL time).

2016 Sailing World Cup Final – Melbourne: New Zealand current standings:

49er Men

1st Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie (1,1,11)
3rd Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey (2,5,4)
5th Nick Egnot-Johnson and Jack Rogers (3,11,3)

470 Men

9th Sam Barnett and Zak Merton (9,8)
12th Markus Somerville and Taylor Balogh (11, 13)

Finn

14th Gary Lokum (15,12)

Laser

9th Andrew McKenzie (6,16)
20th Matthew Kempers (17, 20)

Laser Radial

10th Susannah Pyatt (10,11)

Formula Kite

7th Sam Bullock (4,4,5,1,4,3)

Nacra 17

3rd Olivia Mackay and Micah Wilkinson (3,3,2)

Full results click here

About the Sailing World Cup

The Sailing World Cup is a World-class, annual series of Olympic sailing for elite and professional sailors. Over 2,000 of the World's leading sailors, representing over 75 nations have competed in the Sailing World Cup which offers a definitive guide to the best-of-the-best in the Olympic sailing world.