Sail Auckland - Day 1 Report

by Sail-world.com/uk on 17 Feb 2008
After the action in Australia the focus is firmly now on New Zealand and the Singapore Airlines Sail Auckland Regatta, a warm-up for the Tornado and the Laser Radial Worlds later in February and March.

The Sail Auckland Regatta runs through to Tuesday, the Tornados will be sailing off Takapuna, with an inner harbour course, Laser Radials are with the rest of the competitors at Kohimaramara. All of the top 20 ranked crews in the World have entered the 2008 Tornado World Championships with a total entry of 50 competitors from 21 countries.

It is in the two classes facing imminent championships that interest is focussed. In the Tornado class after the first day of racing, the Australian pair Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby lead, six points ahead of Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz of Spain. Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis are third ahead of the USA's John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree.

Finnish Olympic sailor Sari Multala, is leading the Radials with a 3, 3 and 1 on her scorecard. Behind Mutala is Chinese sailor Lijia Xu and New Zealand’s 2008 Olympic representative Jo Aleh. Jo Aleh finished the day with 1, 7 and 10.

Australia's Sarah Blanck, the Asia pacific Champion had a slow start and is in 10th place.

While for many countries the Olympic selection has been decided already, the Laser Radial Worlds could well decide who will get the GBR Olympic berth and after three races in Auckland warm-up, Charlotte Dobson was the best placed in fourth overall, with Laura Baldwin in 11th and Lizzie Vickers 13th, Penny Clark was 21st.

In the RS:X men’s class New Zealander JP Tobin leads a very strong fleet which includes thirty international sailors from fifteen countries. Tobin snatched the overall lead in the final race of the day from Portugal’s Joao Rodrigues, who was second in the 2008 World Championships, and 2004 Olympic champion Nikos Kaklamanakis from Greece.

Tornado - After 3 races, 40 entries
1st AUS Darren Bundock Glen Ashby 3 3 7 13 pts
2nd ESP Fernando Echavarri Anton Paz 2 8 9 19 pts
3rd NED Mitch Booth Pim Nieuwenhuis 7 7 6 20 pts
4th USA John Lovell Charlie Ogletree 17 1 3 21 pts
5th GER Roland Gaebler Gunnar Struckmann 1 5 15 21 pts
6th ESP Toni Rivas Fabian Escude 8 18 1 27 pts
7th GBR Andrew Walsh Edward Barney 5 12 11 28 pts
8th GER Johannes Polgar Florian Spalteholy 10 22 2 34 pts
9th DEN Allan Norregaard Michael Risoer 13 2 20 35 pts
10th GBR John Gimson Stuart Bithell 4 4 27 35 pts
11th PUR Enrique Figueroa Jorge Hervandez 16 19 5 40 pts
12th GBR Leigh McMillian Will Howden 11 16 13 40 pts
13th NZL Aaron McIntosh Mark Kennedy 19 21 4 44 pts
14th AUT Roman Hagan Hans Peter Steinacher 26 6 12 44 pts
15th RUS Kirilyuk Andrey Ushkov Valeriy 6 17 24 47 pts
16th FRA Billy Besson Arnaud Jarlegan 14 26 8 48 pts
17th BEL Carolijn Brouwer Sebbe Godefroid 21 9 18 48 pts
18th CHN You Jia Luo Xiu Ke Chen 25 13 10 48 pts
19th AUT Thomas Zajac Thomas Czajka 20 14 14 48 pts
20th GBR Tom Phipps Marcus Lynch 15 15 28 58 pts

Laser Radial Women - After 3 races, 46 entries
1st FIN Sari Multala Vantaa, FIN 3 3 1 7 pts
2nd CHN Lijia Xu Beijing, CHN 9 2 3 14 pts
3rd NZL Jo Aleh Takapuna BC 1 7 10 18 pts
4th GBR Charlotte Dobson RNCYC 8 9 7 24 pts
5th NZL Sara Winther Takapuna BC 12 6 8 26 pts
6th CZE Veronika Fenclova Praha, CZE 13 1 13 27 pts
7th NED Marit Bouwmeester Frisia 11 11 5 27 pts
8th SUI Nathalie Brugger CH-Ependes, SUI 17 8 4 29 pts
9th USA Anna Tunnicliffe North Cape YC 7 10 12 29 pts
10th AUS Sarah Blanck Sandringham YC 10 5 18 33 pts
11th GBR Laura Baldwin Spinnaker Lake YC 2 12 20 34 pts
12th NED Gea Jutjens Haarlem, NED 22 4 9 35 pts
13th GBR Lizzie Vickers RTYC 6 15 15 36 pts
14th DEN Alberte Holm Lindberg ASC 15 17 6 38 pts
15th IRL Debbie Hanna E. Antrim YC 16 14 11 41 pts
16th ISR Nufar Edelman Sdot-Yam YC 4 18 22 44 pts
17th GBR Andrea Brewster FPSC 14 13 21 48 pts
18th AUS Gabrielle King Big River SC 18 20 19 57 pts
19th POR Sara Carmo Cascais CN 29 16 14 59 pts
20th CAN Danielle Dube Royal Nova Scotia YC 5 26 29 60 pts
21st GBR Penny Clark Royal Navy 26 19 16 61 pts

RS:X Men
1st NZL JP Tobin 5, 2, 2 (9 points)
2nd POR Joao Rodrigues 1, 7, 3 (11 points)
3rd GRE Nikos Kaklamanakis 2, 1, 10 (13 points)
4th SUI Richard Stauffacher 7, 5, 1 (13 points)
5th CAN Zachary Plavsic 8, 3, 7 (18 points)

RS:X Women
1st ESP Marina Alabau 1, 2, 2 (5 points)
2nd UKR Olga Maslivets 7, 1, 3 (11 points)
3rd GER Romy Kinzl 6, 5, 1 (12 points)
4th NZL Barbara Kendall 2, 3, 12 (17 points)
5th POL Anna Galecka 8, 4, 6 (18 points)

470
1st NZL Carl Evans and Peter Burling 1, 1, 4 (6 points)
2nd NZL Geoffrey Woolley and Mark Overington 3, 2, 2 (7 points)
3rd NZL Dan Wilcox and Chris Dawson 4, 3, 1 (8 points)

Laser Radial Men
1st NZL Blair McLay 2, 1, 3 (6 points)
2nd NZL James Sandall 1, 2, 8 (11 points)
3rd NZL Andrew Maloney 3, 5, 5 (13 points)

Laser Standard
1st NZL Josh Junior 1, 3, 1 (5 points)
2nd FRA Malo Leseigneur 3, 1, 2 (6 points)
3rd NZL Mathew Steven 2, 2, 4 (8 points)

420
1st NZL Marcus Hansen and Finn Drummond 26 points
2nd NZL Thomas Saunders and Chris Steele 32 points
3rd NZL Frankie Lardies and David Hazard 32 points

Event website: www.sailauckland.org.nz