New Leaders at 9er Championships on day 2

by RYA/Lindsey Bell on 26 Jul 2006 It's all change at the top of the leaderboards on day two of the Group 4 Securicor 9er Championships at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, with racing again hampered by light winds.

After a promising start to Tuesday's racing, the schedule was upset once more when the 10-11 knots which greeted sailors for the scheduled start time of 1100hrs at this combined 29er World Championship/49er European Championship decreased throughout the course of the afternoon.

Half of the 94-boat 49er fleet managed to sail a fifth race, with the other half confined to shore with the prospect of an earlier 10:00hrs start looming for Wednesday.

British 49er World Champions and defending European titleholders Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks are in second place, with just four races counting for all boats at the end of day two. The Skandia Team GBR pairing couldn't quite match their perfect regatta start from Monday, where they posted two race wins, but are still firmly in the running with a 3,6 to show for Tuesday.

'We didn't have the best of days,' said Draper, sailing in the yellow flight which started racing when the wind was disappearing for the day. 'We weren't starting all that well, and in these conditions, when everyone's sailing the right and you don't get a great start it's quite hard to pick up places through the fleet.'

The Italian Sibello brothers, Pietro and Gianfranco take over the top spot, with a 1,3,1 from their first three races on Tuesday to add to a third from their one and only race on Monday. The blue flight in which the Italians sailed also squeezed in a fifth race, with the brothers' first place from that race coming in to play on Wednesday when all 49er flights have caught up to five races.

Denmark's Jonas Warrer and Martin Kirketerp are in third overall, in equal points with Ukraine's Rodion Luka and George Leonchuk, while Skandia Team GBR's Paul Campbell James and Mark Asquith, after posting 12,11 on Monday, had a perfect scoreline from the second day, crossing first in races three and four on Tuesday.

Finland currently occupy the top two berths of the 105-boat 29er World Championship table, with Mikko Hentinen and Miika Pennanen in the lead on seven points, and top female helm Silja Lehtinen with Australian Scott Babbage close behind on eight points.

Sailing in the green flight, Lehtinen and Babbage notched up two race wins in races three and four, and another from race five still to count tomorrow, as not all 29er flights managed to get a fifth race in today.

However, at press time the regatta jury are considering whether to throw out race four for Lehtinen's green 29er flight, as the wind reportedly dropped to less than four knots for over five minutes during that race.

Overnight leaders and British national champions Paul Brotherton and Mari Shepherd are currently in third, but will be in the frame once again tomorrow as they still have a first to count from race five, and then have a discard to play with.

British youth national champions Dylan Fletcher and Rob Partridge are just off the overall podium positions in fourth.

The Group 4 Securicor 9er Championships is run in association with the RYA, the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy and the 29er and 49er Class Associations, and is supported by UK Sport's World Class Events Programme.

49er - Leading results after day 2, 93 entries:

1 ITA 13 Pietro Sibello Gianfranco Sibello 3 1 3 1 -1 9 8pts
2 GBR 1 Chris Draper Simon Hiscocks 1 1 3 6 (DNC) 36 11
3 DEN 16 Jonas Warrer Martin Kirketerp 7 2 2 2 (DNC) 38 13
4 UKR 9 Rodion Luka George Leonchuk 4 3 2 4 (DNC) 38 13
5 ESP 8 Federico Alonso Arturo Alonso 11 3 3 1 -7 25 18
6 USA 840 Morgan Larson Peter Spaulding 2 8 2 RDG 6.0 -12 30 18
7 GER 12 Gabriel Wicke Wolf Jeschonnek 2 3 4 9 (DNC) 43 18
8 GER 5 Marcus Baur Hannes Baumann 4 4 5 6 -11 30 19
9 DEN 33 Peter Hansen Soren Hansen 12 1 6 1 (DNC) 45 20
10 ESP 10 Iker Martinez Xabier Fernandez 9 1 7 3 -2 22 20
11 GBR 19 John Pink Alex Hopson 3 2 14 2 -1 22 21
12 GBR 3 Stevie Morrison Ben Rhodes 2 8 4 8 (DNC) 47 22
13 FRA 31 Dyen Manu Rocherieux Yann 10 10 1 2 (DNC) 48 23
14 USA 14 Tim Wadlow Chris Rast 7 6 7 3 (DNC) 48 23
15 GBR 24 Paul Campbell-James Mark Asquith 12 11 1 1 (DNC) 50 25
16 FRA 992 Alex Monteau Damien Guillou 10 5 1 9 -5 30 25
17 CAN 42 Gordon Cook Ben Remocker 10 3 7 5 -5 30 25
18 POL 27 Pawel Kacprowski Arkadiusz Fedusio 8 15 2 2 -16 43 27
19 POR 989 Jorge Lima Francisco Andrade 5 10 9 3 (DNC) 52 27
20 DEN 917 Emil Toft Nielsen Simon Toft Nielsen 3 5 10 10 (DNC) 53 28
21 GER 734 Thomas Rein Patrick Boehmer 11 4 7 7 (DNC) 54 29
22 NED 825 Daan Schutte Pim Nieuwenhuis 3 2 17 9 (DNC) 56 31
23 GBR 935 John Wilson James Barker 4 13 8 6 -15 46 31
24 FRA 974 Morgan Lagraviere Delpech Noé 1 12 9 10 -13 45 32
25 FRA 906 George Richards Florian Trancart 6 9 12 5 -6 38 32

29er - Leading results after day 2, 105 entries:

1 FIN 846 Mikko Hentinen Miikka Pennanen 2 2 2 1 (DNC) 35 7
2 FIN 2 Silja Lehtinen Scott Babbage 1 5 1 1 -1 9 8
3 GBR 1159 Paul Brotheron Mari Shepherd 1 1 6 1 -1 10 9
4 GBR 5 Dylan Fletcher Rob Partridge 9 1 2 2 -7 21 14
5 GBR 1157 Will Twemlow Pete Perera 1 2 8 6 -12 29 17
6 DEN 880 Niels Joachim Gormsen Peter Lang 4 5 2 7 -17 35 18
7 USA 12 Cameron Biehl Matt Noble 9 3 1 6 (DNC) 47 19
8 GER 955 Paul Niklas Jepsen Maui Jepsen 8 2 8 2 -12 32 20
9 GBR 1122 James Hopson Samual Coombs 6 3 11 1 -3 24 21
10 GBR 342 Sophie White Andy Fielder 7 5 3 7 -17 39 22
11 GBR 1112 Huw Humphreys Max Todd 3 8 2 11 -10 34 24
12 ARG 18 Matias Gainza Eurnekian Federico Villambrosa 6 15 1 3 -10 35 25
13 GBR 1197 Sarah Martin Nicola Groves 9 1 3 12 (DNC) 53 25
14 SUI 484 Fabio Perez Martin Hofmann 6 RDG 7.0 11 2 (DNC) 54 26
15 SUI 1160 Carmen Oswold Moritz Jon Werdt 12 3 9 3 -8 35 27
16 USA 45 Judge Ryan Hans Henken 5 10 8 5 (DNC) 56 28
17 DEN 841 Solbritt Groenbaek Mikkel Ohlsen 2 14 11 3 -25 55 30
18 GER 1105 Benjamin Friedhoff Julian Ramm 2 11 8 9 -11 41 30
19 GER 940 Tom Lange Tim Lange 4 2 16 13 -5 40 35
20 GBR 703 Oscar Mcveigh John Mather 19 8 4 4 -3 38 35
21 DEN 370 Henrik Rask Sogard Soren Wiegand Kristensen 22 4 6 5 -2 39 37
22 DEN 1037 Frederikke Linde Marie Louise Svendsen 6 10 10 12 -9 47 38
23 GBR 876 Julia Noble Craig Paul 16 1 6 16 -16 55 39
24 GER 989 Jan Hauke Ericksen Simon Gerling 15 12 10 2 -24 63 39
25 GBR 691 Paul Turnill Preston Taylor 19 3 9 10 -2 43 41

Racing runs through to Saturday 29 July.

Event website: http://www.9erchamps2006.com