NZL Sailing Team: Young Nacra pair revel in strong winds

by Yachting NZ 4 Apr 2018 14:54 PDT 5 April 2018

The wind made its presence felt in Palma and so did a handful of New Zealand sailors as they made their move on the third day of the Princess Sofia regatta.

Liv Mackay and Micah Wilkinson revelled in the 18-20 knots winds and steep waves to record two wins and a second to move into fourth overall in the Nacra 17, the same position as Andy Maloney in the Finn. Sam Meech is now leading the Laser after a first and a fourth, Alex Maloney and Molly Meech are fifth in the 49erFX and Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey seventh in the 49er.

Many of the 26-strong New Zealand sailors had been hoping for more breeze after two light and shifty days and Palma's Bay of Mallorca delivered. There was plenty of drama on the Nacra 17 course where many teams are still getting to grips with their foiling catamarans but Mackay and Wilkinson showed the benefit of the summer training in New Zealand.

"We really enjoyed sailing in the breeze today and it was good to see some of our training back home starting to pay off," Wilkinson said. "There were some big crashes out there and we survived a few big ones. We gave it some jandal and took two wins before we got sent back in for the wind to die down.

"The last race in the afternoon was surprisingly light but we managed to pull off a second. We led around the last mark but gave it away on the last run which was a bit of a shame but it was starting to get a bit shifty so we were happy to bag some awesome results today. It was really encouraging for us."

Mackay and Wilkinson are two of the youngest sailors on the Nacra 17 circuit but have plenty of foiling experience and finished in the top 10 at last year's world championships. Italy's Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti hold a handy 14-point lead over the British pair of Ben Saxton and Nicola Boniface but Mackay and Wilkinson are only seven points off third with plenty of time left in the regatta.

Andy Maloney also enjoyed the stronger breeze in the Finn, banking a seventh and first to be only three points off second in just his second major regatta since switching to the heavyweight dinghy. Josh Junior also found the conditions more to his liking to record two top-10 results to move up to 25th overall.

"We had some epic conditions today with 15-20 knots and good waves," Maloney said. "I was really happy with how I sailed. I managed to start really well and sail the shifts upwind nicely to have two solid races.

"My boat was set up nicely today for the conditions and I was moving along upwind. The second race I was stoked to punch out on the first leg and go on to take my first European Finn fleet race win."

Sam Meech is in a strong position in the Laser on the back of a fourth and first in today's two races and he holds a three-point lead over Australia's Matthew Wearn. He also has a little more wriggle room than his rivals given his discard so far is an eighth.

Tom Saunders and Andrew McKenzie slipped out of the top 10 and are now 13th and 14th respectively.

Porebski and Rippey were another combination to climb the leaderboard on day three, lifting from 22nd to seventh in the 49er with a sixth, fifth and third. They have sailed consistently well, with a 13th in the light winds of the first day their worst result, but will need to keep banking top-10 scores to come into medal contention.

"It was pretty challenging conditions for the 49ers with 18-20 knots and quite big waves but it was really fun racing and we managed to get three good results," Porebski said. "It was pretty hard to see where the marks were as we were hooning downwind. We really couldn't see them with the size of the waves.

"All in all, it was a pretty good day and we moved up the leaderboard quite a few spots which is always pleasing. We are looking forward to more of the same tomorrow but it looks pretty light again."

The Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta represents the first major European event for the majority of the 26 New Zealand sailors competing in Palma and has attracted nearly 1200 sailors and 840 boats from more than 60 nations across 13 classes.

Results and standings after the third day of the Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta in Palma overnight (NZ time):

Men's 470 (79 boats)

1st: Mathew Belcher / William Ryan (AUS) 2 (13) 3 1 1 1 - 8 points 2nd: Keiju Okada / Junpei Hokazono (JPN) 16 3 (22) 3 2 3 - 27 pts 3rd: Simon Diesch / Philipp Autenrieth (GER) 1 (14) 4 5 7 10 - 27 pts

16th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Daniel Willcox (NZL) 9 12 14 2 (21) 17 - 54 pts Women's 470 (48 boats)

1st: Camille Lecointre / Aloise Retornaz (FRA) 2 (22) 2 10 1 1 - 16 pts 2nd: Hannah Mills / Eilidh McIntyre (GBR) (19) 9 2 2 2 3 - 18 pts 3rd: Ai Kondo Yoshida / Miho Yoshioka (JPN) 2 4 7 (12) 4 5 - 22 pts

Silver Fleet

30th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) (15) 13 9 12 8 8 - 49 pts

49er (91 boats)

1st: Dylan Fletcher-Scott / Stuart Bithell (GBR) 12 1 5 1 1 2 (19) 4 1 - 27 pts 2nd: Lukasz Przybytek / Pawel Kolodzinski (POL) 8 5 2 (UFD) 1 2 8 1 5 - 32 pts 3rd: Yago Lange / Klaus Lange (ARG) 7 7 10 4 2 3 1 2 (13) - 36 pts

7th: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 10 8 (13) 4 3 12 6 5 3 - 51 pts

Silver fleet

26th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) (15) 13 15 3 12 1 2 4 6 - 56 pts 49erFX (54 boats)

1st: Annemiek Bekkering / Annette Duetz (NED) 1 1 (8) 1 3 1 4 1 1 - 13 pts 2nd: Ida Marie Baad Nielsen / Marie Thusgaard Olsen 1 2 8 2 5 6 2 (10) 5 - 31 pts 3rd: Jena Mai Hansen / Katja Steen Salskov-Iversen (DEN) 7 4 9 5 3 (11) 6 4 3 - 41 pts

5th: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 2 (13) 1 3 12 7 12 6 4 - 47 pts

Finn (73 boats)

1st: Giles Scott (GBR) 6 3 8 (11) 3 6 - 26 pts 2nd: Tapio Nirkko (FIN) 7 9 4 (BFD) 10 16 - 46 pts 3rd: Alessio Spadoni (ITA) 10 7 (18) 18 6 5 - 46 pts

4th: Andy Maloney (NZL) 16 (48) 19 6 7 1 - 49 pts 25nd: Josh Junior (54) 38 37 24 4 9 - 112 pts 53rd: Raymond Hall (NZL) (60) 17 54 57 48 60 - 236 pts 60th: Brendan McCarty (NZL) 63 50 (BFD) 55 42 46 - 256 pts

Laser (183 boats)

1st: Sam Meech (NZL) 1 2 5 (8) 4 1 - 13 pts 2nd: Matthew Wearn (AUS) 5 2 6 (24) 2 1 - 16 pts 3rd: Tonci Stipanovic (CRO) 6 12 2 (20) 3 5 - 28 pts

13th: Tom Saunders (NZL) (30) 6 1 9 25 14 - 55 pts 14th: Andrew McKenzie (NZL) 5 7 (43) 1 17 26 - 56 pts 22nd: George Gautrey (NZL) 27 8 19 7 (36) 6 - 67 pts

Silver fleet -

169th: Matthew Kempkers (NZL) 43 27 46 (47) DNC DNC - 225 pts

Laser Radial (113 boats)

1st: Marit Bouwmeester (NED) (16) 1 3 6 1 4 - 15 pts 2nd: Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) (9) 8 3 2 3 2 - 18 pts 3rd: Alison Young (GBR) 6 7 (9) 4 7 1 - 25 pts

27th: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) (40) 4 36 7 29 26 - 93 pts 32nd: Olivia Christie (NZL) 12 40 14 28 8 (45) - 102 pts

Nacra 17 (47 boats)

1st: Ruggero Tita / Caterina Banti (ITA) 1 1 3 (6) 1 3 2 2 1 - 14 pts 2nd: Ben Saxton / Nicola Boniface (GBR) 2 1 3 1 1 2 10 8 (15) - 28 pts 3rd: Santiago Lange / Cecilia Carranza Saroli (ARG) 9 2 1 2 8 5 3 4 (18) - 34 pts

4th: Liv Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 17 3 9 4 4 (18) 1 1 2 - 41 pts 10th: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) 5 14 4 10 3 8 6 13 (16) - 63 pts

Men's RS:X (118 boards)

1st: Louis Giard (FRA) (3) 3 3 3 3 1 - 13 pts 2nd: Pawel Tarnowski (POL) 2 3 4 (7) 2 2 - 13 pts 3rd: Sebastian Fleischer (DEN) 3 4 3 (6) 4 4 - 18 pts

RS:X Silver fleet -

84th: Antonio Cozzolino (NZL) 27 21 (33) 23 9 12 - 92 pts

Full results click here