NZL Sailing Team: Kiwis in medal contention at Hyeres World Cup

Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox (NZL) - Round 3, World Cup Series. 22-29 April, 2018 © Richard Langdon / Sailing Energy

Plenty of high scores are being recorded as sailors struggle with the light winds at the World Cup in Hyeres but a handful of New Zealanders are in medal contention as the regatta moves into the final stages.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox are second in the men's 470, the same position Alex Maloney and Molly Meech occupy in the 49erFX and Sam Meech is fourth in the Laser.

A number of other crews are also still in the mix with Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn fifth in the 49er, Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders fifth in the Nacra 17 and Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey seventh in the 49er.

Light winds have been a feature of racing in Hyeres all week which has played havoc with the schedule and seen a number of races abandoned.

Snow-Hansen and Willcox had two races called off overnight (NZ time) but they still managed to complete two others when they were third and sixth to climb one place overall into second. Crucially, they've had only one result outside the top 10 and, even then, it was an 11th which puts them in a strong position for the remainder of the regatta.

"We're happy with how we executed today," Willcox said. "The conditions were tough and we had two races which were abandoned.

"We're halfway through our series now and we're happy we haven't had any bad races. We're feeling comfortable in the light winds and happy with the way we are racing. We just need to keep executing our starts and back our decision making and boat speed. We're looking to make it into the medal race with our sights on gold."

Sam Meech is also eyeing a medal and he managed to maintain fourth overnight on a day of change in the Laser fleet. The leaderboard received a shakeup as a number of sailors struggled with the light and patchy winds, meaning some big scores were posted.

Meech banked a ninth and 18th in the two races which was good enough in the circumstances and he's now only four points behind France's Jean Baptiste Bernaz in the lead. Olympic champion Tom Burton (Australia) dominated the day, winning both races, and is now only two points behind Meech in fifth

"I didn't really have an epic day but I didn't have a bad day, either, so I think I survived," Meech said. "I managed to pull back a few places in the first race and was in a really good position in the second but didn't take advantage.

"It was one of those days and Tom Burton seemed to sail by himself at the front of the fleet. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow. There are some big scores going down so I need to try to keep it clean and hopefully be in there at the end of the week."

Maloney and Meech have a similar philosophy in the 49erFX. They enjoyed the best of the breeze late in the day, sailing in 5-9 knots, and were ninth and fifth in today's two races to leave them nine points behind leaders Helene Naess and Marie Rønningen of Norway.

"We had pretty good starts today and meant we were able to hold our lanes off the start line which gave us options," Meech said. "We managed to pick off boat by boat around the race course and got two solid results so we are pretty happy with the day.

"There's a potential for four races tomorrow so there's a lot to play for. We won't try to do anything too complicated, let others make mistakes. We're looking forward to getting out there tomorrow and getting a bit more breeze."

Only one race was possible in the 49er, with Porebski and Rippey continuing their climb up the leaderboard into seventh, and Susannah Pyatt enjoyed her best day in the Laser Radial, jumping from 27th to 14th on the back of two top-10 results.

Results after the third day of the World Cup regatta in Hyeres, France, overnight (NZ time):

Men's 470 (40 boats)

1st: Anton Dahlberg / Fredrik Bergström (SWE) 3 4 1 (5) 2 - 10 points 2nd: Paul Snow-Hansen / Daniel Willcox (NZL) 1 (11) 5 3 6 - 15 pts 3rd: Tetsuya Isozaki / Akira Takayanagi (JPN) (13) 1 2 8 12 - 23 pts

Women's 470 (36 boats)

1st: Camille Lecointre / Aloise Retornaz (FRA) 1 11 (13) 1 4 - 17 pts 2nd: Silvia Mas Depares / Patricia Cantero Reina (ESP) 7 9 2 (10) 5 - 23 pts 3rd: Hannah Mills / Eilidh McIntyre (GBR) 5 4 (14) 5 11 - 25 pts

16th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) (24) 14 6 9 24 - 53 pts

49er (40 boats)

1st: David Gilmour / Joel Turner (AUS) 2 2 (27) 1 13 2 - 20 pts 2nd: Diego Botin le Chever / Iago Lopez Marra (ESP) 5 4 (41 UFD) 7 14 5 - 35 pts 3rd: Dominik Buksak / Szymon Wierzbicki (POL) 3 5 1 19 8 (32) - 36 pts

5th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 4 3 6 (32) 22 11 - 46 pts 7th: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 19 (34) 5 18 5 6 - 53 pts 49erFX (39 boats)

1st: Helene Naess / Marie Rønningen (NOR) 4 3 3 5 13 (21) 1 - 29 pts 2nd: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 8 (31) 1 14 1 9 5 - 38 pts 3rd: Ida Marie Baad Nielsen / Marie Thusgaard Olsen (DEN) 1 1 16 (24) 7 7 10 - 42 pts Finn (40 boats)

1st: Nicholas Heiner (NED) 1 11 1 9 (13) 1 - 23 pts 2nd: Jorge Zarif (BRA) 5 1 6 10 2 (22) - 24 pts 3rd: Alican Kaynar (TUR) (41 UFD) 10 11 1 3 3 - 28 pts

12th: Andy Maloney (NZL) 8 14 14 12 (15) 14 - 62 pts 17th: Josh Junior (NZL) 16 9 9 21 (41 UFD) 15 - 70 pts Laser (69 boats)

1st: Tonci Stipanovic (CRO) 1 1 7 (27) - 9 pts 2nd: Jean Baptiste Bernaz (FRA) (18) 2 9 3 - 14 pts 3rd: Pavlos Kontides (CYP) 2 5 (26) 7 - 14 pts

1st: Jean Baptiste Bernaz (FRA) 18 2 9 3 (29) 8 - 40 pts 2nd: Lorenzo Brando Chiavarni (GBR) 13 3 5 13 7 (24) - 41 pts 3rd: Filip Jurisic (CRO) 8 12 3 (21) 6 13 - 42 pts

4th: Sam Meech (NZL) 7 (20) 1 9 9 18 - 44 pts 9th: Tom Saunders (NZL) 12 4 14 8 33 (47) - 71 pts 22nd: Andrew McKenzie (NZL) 22 7 12 24 (58) 43 - 108 pts

Laser Radial (64 boats)

1st: Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 4 2 (19) 2 1 10 - 19 pts 2nd: Maité Carlier (BEL) 34.0 6 (16) 4 6 15 3 - 34 pts 3rd: Monika Mikkola (FIN) 16 5 18 3 4 (24) - 46 pts

14th: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 24 (33) 15 27 8 7 - 81 pts 48th: Olivia Christie (NZL) (64) 45 35 31 53 25 - 189 pts Nacra 17 (30 boats)

1st: Ruggero Tita / Caterina Marianna Banti (ITA) 2 1 (16) 4 1 9 1 - 18 pts 2nd: Ben Saxton / Nicola Boniface (GBR) 1 6 3 3 13 1 (14) - 27 pts 3rd: Samuel Albrecht / Bruna Martinelli Cesário de Mello (BRA) (17) 9 1 9 4 7 6 - 36 pts

5th: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) 10 (31 BFD) 3 8 14 4 11 - 51 pts 16th: Liv Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) (31 UFD) 19 2 10 6 18 24 - 79 pts