Top sailors hold places - Singapore Airlines Sail Auckland Regatta

by Sarah Roberts on 6 Feb 2009
Friday 6 February, the second day of racing in Sail Auckland and a national public holiday in New Zealand, presented a stunning day of racing on the waters of an action-packed Waitemata Harbour, where the perfect sailing breeze held true all day.

A consistent breeze of 10 – 15 knots on Auckland’s Waitemata today saw the first of three races get away on schedule. And the sun was not the only thing shining brightly: some of our country’s young sailing stars have finished the second day of racing on a high note.

When Russell Coutts suggested to a yacht club in his home-town of Dunedin that they help get their young sailors into the 29er skiff – which is a scaled-down version of the Olympic 49er – they took him at his word and bought six.

The investment is paying off, and two Dunedin combinations are leading their division at this, one of the country’s most prestigious dinghy regattas, with Dan Meehan & Deryck Edie – who towed their boat more than 1300km to compete in the regatta - moving into the lead today, ahead of Chelsea Whitburn and her crew.

Dan Meehan said they enjoyed today’s heavier breeze: 'More wind today helped us, we are probably the heaviest crew out there.'

Logan Dunning-Beck – son of Olympic boardsailing coach Grant Beck – and his crew Ben Goodwin took over the lead in the 420 class with a perfect score of three wins out of three races on the water today.
Alexanda Maloney and Bianca Barbarich-Bacher dropped back to second, and Luke Stevenson & Sam Bullock hold third place overall.

Geoffrey Woolley and Mark Overington, representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, which is also the host club for the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, continue to lead the 470 class, and Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders, representing the Wakatere Boating Club, move one place into second overall.

Francisco Lardies and Finn Drummond drop from second to third, and Olympic Representative Jo Aleh and her crew of Olivia Powrie retain their fourth placing.

Olympic Representative Andrew Murdock remains in front of the Laser class adding another two wins and one second to an already impressive score. Worser Bay team-mates David Weaver and Josh Junior both move up in the rankings, adapting well to today’s heavier airs. Michael Bullott beat Murdoch in the final race of the day and moves from fifth to third place overall.

The Malaysian duo of Mohd Romzi Mohamad and Harrithammry Nassution Hairudin continue to hold the top two positions in the Laser Radial fleet, but young Nicolas Croft from the Manly Sailing Club jumps two places into third overall after a great day on the water. Croft leads the youth division by just two points over Ben Lutze from Taipa Sailing Club. Belgium International Carolijn Brouwer continues to lead the Women’s Division, retaining her fourth place overall 19 points clear ahead of the next female competitor, Sara Winther from the Takapuna Boating Club.

Noumea International Etienne Le Pen continues to lead the Splash class adding two first and one second race to his total score. Michael Cate and James Little jump up one place to second and third overall respectively bumping the first place female sailor, Laura Hemingway from Tauranga into fourth place.

In the Starling Class, former World Champion Optimist sailor Chris Steele continues his form with another three wins to add to his already perfect score. Korean female International Gyeongjin Lee moves down two places to fourth overall, leaving room for Scott Barnes and Grant Hamilton to move up into third and fourth places.

Olympic Gold Medalist Tom Ashley narrowlly beat JP Tobin in the final race of the day to take over the lead in the RSX men’s division, and bump Tobin into second place. Antonio Cozzolino had a steady three thirds today propelling him into third place overall. Thai international Ek Boonsawad falls back one place into fourth position just ahead of Josh Nixon in fifth.

The Womens RSX division remains unchanged with Kate Ellingham still on top chased closely by two Internationals, Nikola Girke from Canada and Tuuli Petaja from Finland.

The Youth RSX division title is still lead by Thomas Goyard from Noumea with a pefect score of six points after six convincing wins.
Takapuna sailor Ben Mackay jumps into second position in between Goyard’s team-mate Jonathon Blanquart.

The annual ISAF Grade One event is held over four racedays and concludes on Sunday. The event has attracted 11 divisions in 7 different Olympic and dinghy classes.

Racing is scheduled to begin tomorrow (Saturday) at midday and the weather forecast promises more champagne sailing conditions.

Full results for all divisions are online at www.sailauckland.org.nz