NZL Sailing Team- 470 men hold seventh overall in ISAF Sailing Worlds

by Kristine Lederis and Sail-World on 10 Dec 2011

Nick Rogers and Chris Grube of Great Britain trim their sails on day 7 during the mens 470 gold fleet race of the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships on December 9, 2011 in Perth, Australia. Ocean Images

Friday was a relatively quiet day for the NZL Sailing team at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships; only two classes were on the water. The Fremantle Doctor made a late and lazy entrance today, but the NZL Sailing Team men in the 470 and Finn classes did well with the breeze.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders recovered well from a slow first upwind in the race one of the day, and reeled fifteen places back up on the downwind legs for a 12th place finish. They lie in seventh place overall and are fifth country.

NZL Sailing Team are New Zealand’s National Sailing team competing in Olympic sailing events © Yachting NZ

'We could have had a lot better day but we’re still happy with how we’ve been sailing' Jason said after racing. 'We’re confident we can catch a couple more places heading into the last day.'

Racing in the centre course of Bathers Bay, onlookers from the grandstands had spectacular viewing of the 470 fleet starts, bottom mark gates, and plenty of mark rounding action.

'It was definitely a change to be on the centre course' Jason continued on about their day on Friday. 'There was a lot more chop from coach boats and other random boats'

Today, they were also racing on a different course format. 'Doing windward leeward’s was also a change, we usually do trapezoid. It created more passing lanes because there were more laps and the racing was really close.'

Paul and Jason have moved up one place to lie seventh overall, and if they can keep up with these results, they could be set for a slot in the medal race.

The Laser Radial fleet will be racing on the centre course tomorrow, Saturday.

Dan Slater took a few steps forward in the overall standings of the Finn class, with a top ten finish to start the day with a seventh place finish. Dan is now overall 20th in the Finn class, one of the most hotly contested classes here at the World Championships.

The Women’s RS: X and Laser Radial had a lay day today.

There will be two last races for every competitor in the Mens 470, Finn, Women’s RS:X and Radial on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s medal races for the top 10 ranked in each fleet.

Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen and Susannah Pyatt will start the next round robin of the top 16 teams in match racing on Saturday too, sailing the Elliott 6metre.

Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships
New Zealand’s Current Standings

470 Men
7th Gold Fleet - Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders (13, 10, 12)
13th Silver Fleet - Luke Stevenson and Sam Bullock (4, 11,17)
18th Silver Fleet- James Turner and Matthew Jones (9, 20, 11)
30th Silver Fleet- Gareth Moore and Ben Goodwin (22, 31, 21)
34th Silver Fleet- Mike Snow-Hansen and Derek Snow (31, 41DNF, 34)

Laser Radial
11th Gold Fleet - Sara Winther (4, 26, 15)
33rd Gold Fleet - Miranda Powrie (45, 8, 32)
7th Silver Fleet - Rachel Basevi (1, 8, 52DNS)

Finn
20th Gold Fleet -Dan Slater (23, 7, 20)
26th Gold Fleet-Matt Coutts (26, 30, 18)
12th Silver Fleet- Nik Burfoot (12, 4, 16)
20th Silver Fleet- Brad Douglas (23, 17, 17)
31st Silver Fleet- Rob Coutts (32, 28 25 )

RS:X Womens
29th Gold Fleet - Steff Williams (34, 27, 23)
2nd Silver Fleet -Natalia Kosinska (1, 2, 9)
9th Silver Fleet- Justina Sellers (4, 17, 3)

Womens Match Racing
Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen, Susannah Pyatt
8 Wins, 6 Loss- progressing to Stage 2 Round Robin