ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne - Day 2
by Lisa Ratcliff 10 Dec 2015 01:41 PST
7-13 December 2015
Melbourne put the whitest cloth and the best silverware on the table for the 900 plus Victorian, interstate and international sailors on day two of the Sailing World Cup Melbourne, the first stop of the six stage series.
The morning began with the hilarity of the inaugural Opti Olympic challenge when five Australian Olympic gold medallists and other high profile sailors took on some switched on Optimist kids in a novelty race that drew a great crowd at St Kilda sailing precinct for a fun start to the day. Out of the blatant cheating, paddling, tackling on the beach and water pistols, the youth sailors cleaned up the results.
When the serious competition began, sailors in the Olympic, Paralympic and invited divisions were greeted with light and cool winds and like yesterday the breeze moved into double figures as the day wore on, giving the afternoon session's competitors 16 knots of cool SSE wind and stunning summer sunshine to play in.
Laser Radial
Susannah Pyatt (NZL) surprised herself when she popped into the overall lead after smashing out two first places in the Laser Radial. "Today was similar to what we had in Oman for the Worlds with a steady breeze and nice waves. I have done a lot of training in similar conditions."
In equal second on the progressive results sheet after four of eight races in the series is a disappointed Ashley Stoddart (AUS) who scored two seconds on the Port Melbourne course. "I set a goal to chase Susannah down, but she did a good job to cover me on the upwinds," Stoddart acknowledged.
Third overall is Tatiana Drozdovskaya (BLR).
A quarter way into their competition Australian sisters Jacinta Ainsworth, 18, and Elyse, 16, are a single point and place apart from a total fleet of 20 sailing in the women's Olympic class boat.
"It's good that we are on the same level, over the last 12 months Elyse has really stepped up," said Jacinta. "Being close is working in our favour."
Laser
Twenty six year-old Rio contender Colin Cheng (SIN) qualified his country for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games last year and this afternoon he leads the men's Laser fleet by two points from Thomas Saunders (NZL).
"This is a big year, we are putting a lot of effort into the Olympics," said Cheng as he approaches selection for the second time having made the London team, finishing 15th. "It's always a balance trying not to burn out when I'm full time sailing. I'm pretty happy with my fitness, though it could always be better, and it's at a level I can purely focus on my sailing."
SKUD 18
Current world and Olympic champions Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch (AUS) continued their dominance on the Hobsons course near the port of Williamstown, winning both of today's races. Great Britain's Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell stayed on trend with a 3-2 day to remain second overall. Third is Monika Gibes and Piotr Cichocki (POL).
The Netherland's Rolf Schrama and Sandra Nap, having qualified their country for the 2016 Paralympic Games at last week's World Championship out of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, are desperate to achieve top results to go towards their national team selection. Today's 6-4 results will require discussion with their coach Schrama admitted. "Our downwind wasn't very good and our upwind were okay. It was great racing, but our results weren't good."
Other Olympic class results
Carrie Smith and Jamie Ryan (AUS) are not giving any opportunities away and lead the 470 women's fleet with a perfect score of four wins from four. It's the same result in the men's 470 division that is dominated by the Conway brothers of Alex and Patrick from Australia.
Two more bullets for David Gilmour and Rhys Mara (AUS) keeps them in pole position in the 49er fleet while in the smaller rig 49erFX class Tess Lloyd and Caitlin Elks (AUS) also hold the top spot.
Josip Olujic (CRO) is proving a thorn in the side of local favourite and event ambassador Oli Tweddell (AUS) in the Finn class, the pair are divided by two points with three days remaining until the Gold Medal showdown on Sunday December 13, 2015.
Germany's Florian Gruber is making merry in the consistent winds in the IKA Formula Kite division, posting another day of back to back wins in four of the six races to be leading the series by eight points.
Invited classes
The fluttering of 102 tiny white mainsails as the eager Optimist sailors headed away from St Kilda Beach heralded the start of the Invited classes section of the annual summertime regatta Melbourne has hosted for seven years. Drawn from clubs across Australia and New Zealand, the junior sailors completed two opening races in perfect conditions.
Both New Zealand's Yachting Trust Youth Team and the Australian Youth Sailing Team are among the sailors utilising the Laser Radial (men's and women's), RS:X, 29er and large 420 fleet competition to prepare for the Youth Sailing World Championships in Malaysia later this month.
In the background, the silky Viper catamaran fleet of Australian, New Zealand and New Caledonian entries were enjoying reasonably smooth bay conditions and low flying their way around the course with plenty of pace and salt spray flying to the delight of the photographers.
The O'pen Bic 28-boat fleet and the Minnows shared a course area, showing off to their fellow French competitors in the ideal conditions and this afternoon the 29ers, Laser Radials, Laser 4.7s and Liberty classes had their turn.
A strong wind warning is in place for Friday for Port Phillip with forecast westerly winds increasing to 20-25 knots in the morning and by midday they could be as strong as 20-30 knots out of the west to south-west.
Results: www.sailing.org/worldcup/results/index.php
Live tracking: www.sailing.org/worldcup/multimedia/tracking.php
Update from Australian Sailing by Cora Zillich
In the Olympic classes, Australian Sailing's up and coming young guns made the most of the day to build their positions at the top of the fleets with two more race days to go before the top-ten Medal Race on Sunday, December 13 2015.
Australian Sailing Squad's Laser sailors cemented their spot in the top five in the 35-boat fleet with Mitchell Kennedy (QLD) moving into third and overtaking yesterday's leading teammate Luke Elliott (WA), who suffered a black flag in the second race and dropped into fourth as a consequence.
"We arrived in a lighter breeze then it slightly built, up to around 12 knots. It was nice to rest the legs after yesterday. Today more sailors were in the mix and it was tight racing with an oscillating breeze; it was about staying in the shifts and seeing how you went. I managed to post an eighth and fifth, so two keepers. This pushed me into third and I'm happy to still be in the game," Mitch Kennedy said.
And about the calibre of the fleet he added: "The fleet has been pretty good and we all like to think of it as the 'young gun showdown'. There are a couple of younger guys here who are having a crack, and some Kiwis and some Canadians have travelled down under, which has been really good. Today certainly mixed it up a bit.
"I guess tomorrow with the stronger breeze forecast we'll see again what happens. It might be an Aussie showdown once again."
In the Women's RS:X Joanna Sterling (QLD), who only recently secured Rio 2016 country qualification in the at the class' World Championship in Oman last month, has been on a winning streak ever since arriving in Melbourne. With the next class World Championship in February, the 23-year old windsurfer is using Melbourne as a welcome racing opportunity with Rio selection her ultimate goal for next year.
"I just got back from my class world championships where I managed to qualify the country for a place at Rio 2016, which was one of my biggest goals for this year."
"With my next world champs so soon, Melbourne is a great opportunity to get as much racing practice in as possible and gain some more experience. So far the racing has been going really well.
"Today, I came away with three wins and added those to my three wins yesterday. I'm pretty well out in front in first place at the moment and looking forward to the next few days," Jo Sterling said.
In the Laser Radial, Australian Sailing Squad's Ashley Stoddart is in the same situation. The 22 year-old Queenslander qualified the class at the Radial World Championship in Oman last month and is building her race experience in Melbourne with the aim to secure selection for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
After starting the event in the lead, Stoddart sits in second after New Zealand's Susannah Pyatt took home two wins today.
"It was interesting racing. It was puffy and a little bit unstable at first and then the wind settled down. The racing was tighter than yesterday and the Kiwi had a good day. I tried to chase her down in both races but she sailed really well. There were a few things to take away from today and to work on tomorrow," Ashley Stoddart said.
Australian Sailing's Youth Team sailor Jacinta Ainsworth (WA) also had a strong day and moved up into fourth in the 19-boat fleet.
In the 49er, Australian Sailing Team's David Gilmour (WA) and Rhys Mara (VIC) posted another two race wins from three races to defend their lead with Australian Sailing Squad's Will and Sam Phillips close behind in second.
In the 49erFX women's skiff, Tess Lloyd (VIC) and Caitlin (WA) continue to lead after two race wins and enjoyed today's combined men's and women's fleets.
"There's only three of us in the FX fleet and today they decided to start the 49er and FX together, which was a lot better. It puts more pressure on the girls and we can practice more things. The guys are aggressive on the start line and put some pressure on us. We had some really good starts," Tess Lloyd explained.
"And that's what we wanted to focus on today and we really nailed some things and kept up with the boys upwind. It was good fun having them as a target to beat."
In other Australian Sailing results Carrie Smith (WA) and Jaime Ryan (QLD) as well as Patrick and Alexander Conway (NSW) continue to lead the 470 Women's and Men's fleets after taking out both races of the day.
Paralympic Gold medallist and 2015 Para World Sailing Champions Daniel Fitzgibbon (NSW) and Liesl Tesch (NSW) continued their winning streak despite yesterday's two tiring in twenty knot plus breezes.
"It was tough to dig deep and find the energy after such a tough first day on the race course yesterday. We knew we had to dig deep and Dan and I found what we needed to finish the day with two wins," Liesl Tesch said.
SKUD 18 teammates Ame Barnbrook (NSW) and Brett Pearce (NSW) moved back up into sixth overall.
It's been an intense two weeks for Australian Sailing's Paralympic sailors with the 2015 Para World Sailing Championships only wrapping up on Thursday last week.
Australian Sailing's Sonar Team of Paralympians Colin Harrison (WA), Jonathan Harris (NSW) and Russell Boaden (WA) won the silver medal last week and after starting out with a third and second place in yesterday's racing, the team was back to its winning form, two race wins securing them the overall lead.
"It was a much more stable racetrack and the racing was really enjoyable, especially with a couple of race wins. The crew is feeling really positive two days into the regatta," skipper Colin Harrison said.
"We're expecting a lot of wind tomorrow so we're not sure how that's going to pan out. With only two days left we'll just have to take every opportunity to get out there and race."
Last week's bronze medallist Matt Bugg (TAS) moved up into second overall after a strong day posting a third and first. Neil Patterson (TAS) follows in 11th.