Australian’s Bundock-Ashby lead Princess Sofia

by Sail-World/Darren Bundock on 14 Apr 2006 By the end of the fourth day in the Princess Sofia Tornado regatta in Palma, two very experienced Australian catamaran sailors Darren Bundock and Glen Ashby had climbed to the top of the leader board.

Bundock has won the Tornado World Championship four times, Ashby is a triple A Class catamaran world Champion and together they have won both the 2004 and 2005 F18 World titles, now Bundock and Ashby are working a serious campaign aimed toward Qingdao in 2008.

Darren reported today ‘Today was a tricky day. The secret of the day was to sail conservatively and not walk away with any high scores. Although the breeze was blowing from the sea breeze direction it had gradient breeze characteristics and caught out many teams.

‘In the first race of the day most teams headed to the right hand side of the course which had proven to be the favoured side in a sea breeze. However today in the gradient breeze the left was the way to go.’

Soft conditions for both Race 9 and 10 and both races were won by the Austrian Gold Medallists Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher showing they are still the team to beat in the light conditions. Race 10 proved a tough one for the Greek pairing of Paschalidis and Trigonis who were buried 14th, while the Australian managed a fourth place.

Race 11 the sea breeze had filled in over the gradient breeze and the right hand side of the course was once again paying off with more pressure and gusting up to 12 knots of breeze. Johannes Polgar had the best start of the fleet and led Bundock and Ashby around the first mark.

The course was shortened to two laps and there was very little change in the fleet position. However the Austrians bombed with an 18th dropping them down the points table.

Bundock and Ashby sailed a consistent day scoring 7, 4, 2 and found that the rest of the fleet scored highly to place them on top of the leader bord.

Tomorrow is the final 'Medal Race'. Only the top 10 will contest the medal race and it is a double points and non discard-able race.

With their points lead Bundock/Ashby are guaranteed a podium finish. If the breeze is strong they will be hard to beat, but if conditions are soft they will have a battle royal against the Greek pairing.

Day 5 Positions and the following 10 teams will progress to the medal race: