French Olympic Sailing Week – Two races for all, Winther up into fifth

by Jodie Bakewell-White, Yachting NZ on 29 Apr 2010
Sailors were on the water well into the evening to catch up on racing lost over previous days at day four of French Olympic Sailing Week in Hyeres, France.

'The racing committees in Hyères have been hard at work today trying to maximise racing in all classes. The wind has been capricious again, light and shifty, dying then starting again,' states today’s event report.

All the kiwis sailed at least two races, following which Sara Winther in the Laser Radial remains the best placed of the New Zealand team. With a sixth and a ninth in racing overnight Winther improves her standing from seventh up into fifth overall.

Points are close around Winther on 32 on the Laser Radial leader board. Cebrian [ESP] is just one point ahead on 31 in fourth, Drozdovskay [BLR] a further point clear on 30 in third place. Multala [FIN] leads on 23 points while Reyes [ESP] lies second on 27.

Having now sailed four races, the remaining two days of competition will determine the podium places.

Over in the Laser class Murdoch leap frogs Josh Junior as the best performing kiwi after racing over night, and a discard comes into play.

A sixth and a 13th puts Murdoch in twelfth overall, who now drops his worst result from race three out of his points total. While Junior returned a 27th and a 25th on day four which sees him slip to 30th position. Andy Maloney is just behind Junior in 31st position in the total fleet of 141.

New Zealand’s Women’s 470 sailors Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie are now in 17th position overall after an OCS ruling in the first race of the day, a 22nd and an 11th in racing overnight.

Racing continues tomorrow in France, with the regatta concluding on Friday 30th April.

The New Zealand team is supported by coaches Laurie Jury and Mark Howard.

Further updates on the New Zealand team will be issued as racing continues, and full results and news are available on the regatta website.

2010 French Olympic Sailing Week New Zealand’s Current Standings

Women’s Match Racing (22 entries)
Samantha Osborne, Raynor Smeal and Jenna Hansen (Silver round robin: 1 wins/1 loss)

Laser (141 entries)
12th Andrew Murdoch (8, 4, 34, 6, 13)
30th Josh Junior (1, 27, 4, 27, 25)
31st Andy Maloney (18, 19, 14, 20, 6)
51st Max Andrews (36, 4, 21, 26, 7)
52nd Sam Meech (24, 26, 15, 16, 6)
56th Mike Bullot (7, 36, BFD, 23, 1)

Laser Radial (80 entries)
5th Sara Winther – (4, 13, 6, 9)

470 Men (90 entries)
57th Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders – (38, 32, 8, 22, 22)

470 Women (44 entries)
17th Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie – (2, 17, OCS, 22, 11)

RS:X Women (39 entries)
29th Jazmine Lynch – (10, 23, 33, 27, 34)

Finn (52 entries)
29th Matt Coutts – (BFD, 25, 24, 27)

New Zealand’s Coaching Team
Laurie Jury
Mark Howard

About this regatta:
French Olympic Sailing Week [Semaine Olympique Française], Hyères is the fourth of seven events in the 2009-10 ISAF Sailing World Cup series for Olympic class sailors. Racing starts on April 25th and runs over six days with medal races scheduled for April 30th.

The numbers:
716 Sailing teams
33 Olympic medallists
1012 Sailors
58 Countries