Australian brothers lead after long first day for 470 Junior Worlds

by Sail-World on 29 Jan 2012
The fleet were on the water for around five hours for just two races on Day 1 of the 2012 470 Junior World Championship, hosted at Takapuna Boating Club in Auckland, New Zealand.

The races were sailed today with the 10 women's crews and 23 men's crews sailing as one fleet, scored separately things are very tight at the top, especially in the Open fleet.

Moderate to fresh winds prevailed for the racing, with the direction being constant in the south, making for quite cold conditions in the weird Auckland summer.

During the day a peak of around 20 knots was reached, but generally sailors raced in 12 - 16 knots after leaving the shore in very light winds. There were significant chnages on wind strength up the course particularly in the second resailed race.

The first two starts of the day were subject to a general recall, after that the Black Flag was hoisted, and the next start got away cleanly. On the subsequent races, only individual recalls were signalled.

Open fleet (all men and one mixed gender crew)

In the Open contest, Australian brothers Matthew and Robert Crawford sailed the most consistently to come out on top with a slim margin of one point, which also separates second placed local sailors James Turner and Finn Drummond from Simon Sivitz and Jas Farneti of Italy, who got the gun in race two.

Race two was abandoned due to a drifting mark being noted close to completion. After a restart, Magnus Masilge and Moritz Klingenberger of Germany won the race and are fourth, on count back back from Dirk Bennen and Roger Weijers of the Netherlands.

Women's fleet

Netherland sailors also feature well in the women's fleet - Afrodite Kyranakou and Jeske Kisters lead the way after very respectable results within the overall fleet and two first placings in the women's fleet. The Netherland duo have a two point margin over Great Britain's Anna Burnet and Flora Stewart, with German crew Annika Bochmann and Elisabeth Panuschka third.

An international fleet of 33 boats have entered from 13 countries are sailing and if Auckland's Waitemata Harbour keeps serving up fickle offshore conditions, consistency will be what is needed to remain at the top of the leader board.

Full results on the http://www.470sailing.org.nz/470JW%27s/JWresults.htm!Results_page