NZ 420's showing up well in pre-Worlds practice
by Mat Brown on 31 Jul 2006
The NZ compound at the 420 Worlds Simon Cooke
Tomorrow marks the start of qualification at the 420 worlds and the kiwi camp are in good mood.
Despite some illness in the team the New Zealand 420 team is starting to post some good results during training.
Carl Evans and Peter Burling have shown some dominance in the moderate conditions winning a series of training races against other teams including the 2003 world champion. Their performance has gained the attention of many in the fleet.
The official practice race took place today. A number of New Zealand boats showed good speed and kiwis were spotted at the front of many fleets. The highlight of the day however was Sarah Bilkey and Scott Illingworth (sailing together in the open fleet without their usual partners who are sick) who led around every mark and pulled away on most legs.
It is comforting to know that in a class so new to New Zealand we are in the ball park.
So, the team is happy. We will begin qualification tomorrow and our first aim is to get as many of our team into gold fleet as possible.
We plan to send regular updates and these will be posted at www.simoncooke.co.nz (under 'sailing info') in addition to e-mails like these. We hope to also start sending photos.
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