Sail Melbourne day 2 light conditions

by Lauren Garnet on 9 Nov 2011 ISAF Sailing World Cup opening round is currently underway on Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne, Australia. Light winds dominated day two of Sail Melbourne, testing the crews and race committees.

After a number of delays and aborted starts the majority of the fleets were able to get all of their races, with just the RS:X and Paralympic classes left on shore for the day.

After six races in the 49er fleet New Zealanders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke lead by one point from Australians Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, with Melbourne sailors, brothers Will and Sam Phillips in third.

In the 470 class newly-formed Australian pairing of Elise Rechichi and Belinda Stowell maintained their overall lead after four races, with a fourth and a second going well with their two race wins from day one. The winners of the recent Weymouth and Portland International Regatta, the test event for the London 2012 Olympic Games, Japan’s Ai Kondo and Wakato Tobata, recorded a third and a first to hold second overall, two points behind the Australians.

In the men’s fleet overnight leaders Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl of the USA scored two fourths to drop to equal second with the reigning ISAF Sailing World Cup champions, Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page, who finished just behind their younger training partners Sam Kivell and Will Ryan. Kivell and Ryan recorded two bullets to go to the top of the leaderboard, four points clear of second place.

In the small Finn fleet, Ukrainian Oleksiy Borysov maintained his overnight lead, winning the first race and placing second in the next. He leads two Australians, Oliver Tweddell and Rob McMillan.

The last fleet to complete their races were the Lasers with reigning World Champion Tom Slingsby, who is usually more comfortable in heavier airs, showed his dominance again with comfortable wins in both yellow fleet races. Overall, Slingsby leads Nick Thompson of Great Britain by seven points, with Jeeman Ha of Korea in third.

Chinese sailor Lijia Xu increased her lead in the Laser Radial with a fourth and a second. She leads Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands and Tuula Tenkanen of Finland by seven points.

Day three may test the crews even further if the threatened thunderstorms and 20 to 30 knot winds eventuate.

Full results are available online.

Sail Melbourne website