Top British Mens crew lead New Zealand 470 Nationals 2011

by Christine Hansen on 1 Feb 2011
The NZ 470 Nationals got underway with with five races on Day 2 following the cancellation of racing on Day 1 due to strong winds. Fifteen boats are taking part in the Olympic class event, with three countries represented, ahead of the Sail Auckland Regatta ..

At the end of the day the fleet is lead by GBR's Nick Rogers/Chris Grube, with Jo Aleh/ Olivia Powrie 1 pt behind in second, and Paul Snow-Hansen/Jason Saunders 2 pts back to third.

The 2011 New Zealand 470 Nationals are being held out of Takapuna Boating Club on the North Shore of Auckland. 15 boats have entered, three of which have female crews including the 2010 World Silver medalists Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie.

Also in the fleet are three young Australian crews, a former Olympic medal winner for GBR, Nick Rogers with Chris Grube, and former 470 World Champion Simon Cooke, sailing with Carl Evans who competed at the 2008 Olympics.

Other strong contenders for top positions in the men's fleet are members of the NZ Sailing team Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders who placed 15th at the 2010 Worlds, and Geoff Woolley (three times past winner of the NZ Nationals) with Dan Willcox, as well as Mark Overington with Ben Goodwin who have recently competed at Perth's International regatta.

Following a day of very strong southerly winds when racing was canceled, Day 2 of the regatta began with patchy south westerlies, an overcast sky and flat water. Auckland show-cased it's changeable weather - racing generally began in lighter winds around 10 knots, building in strength during the day to gusts of around 20 knots. Conditions within each race varied a great deal, patches of light wind amongst shifty, strong gusty wind.

The sea state developed a short chop as the wind strength increased, and although the sun burnt off the hazy cloud, it came and went throughout the day.

30+ degree shifts resulted in interesting racing and as a consequence of patchy conditions, line honours for the five races sailed were spread amongst the fleet. Race one went to Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders, race two to Mark Overington and Ben Goodwin, race three to Geoff Woolley and Dan Willcox, race four to Snow-Hansen and Saunders, and after a very tight finish between the top three positioned boats, Nick Rogers and ? of GBR took the final bullet for the day.

At the end of Day 2, Rogers/Grube improved through the day to finish at the top of the board; Aleh/Powrie are in second place and Snow-Hansen/Saunders are in third place. Full results are below. On Day 3, the final day of racing, another four races are scheduled, the weather forecast is for strong westerlies which will bring another challenging set of conditions.

For full results http://www.470sailing.org.nz/470results.html!click_here

1st GBR Nick ROGERS Chris GRUBE 6 3 2 2 1 14
2nd 75 Jo ALEH Polly POWRIE 2 2 3 5 3 15
3rd 212 Paul SNOW-HANSEN Jason SAUNDERS 1 6 7 1 2 17
4th 98 Geoffrey WOOLLEY Daniel WILCOX 4 5 1 4 7 21
5th 215 Mark OVERINGTON Ben GOODWIN 3 1 4 10 5 23
6th 209 Francisco LARDIES Finn DRUMMOND 8 4 9 3 6 30
7th 220 Luke STEVENSON Sam BULLOCK 14 8 6 6 4 38
8th AUS3 Scott COTTON Rob SIZE 10 7 5 7 10 39
9th 206 James TURNER Matthew JONES 5 10 8 15 11 49
10th AUS5 Matt CRAWFORD Robert CRAWFORD 7 9 13 8 13 50
11th 202 Alex MALONEY Bianca BARBARICH-BAKER 9 11 10 13 8 51
12th 207 Simon COOKE Carl EVANS 13 13 16 DNF 9 9 60
13th 197 Mike SNOW-HANSEN Ben HANNS 11 14 12 12 14 63
14th 2091 Shelly HESSON Vicky FRANCIS 15 15 11 11 12 64
15th AUS2 Karl BROMFIELD Tom KOERNER 12 12 14 14 15 67