NZL Sailing Team: Am Cup champion leads Finns

Andy Maloney (NZL) - Finn - Day 4 - Sailing World Cup Final, Marseille June 9, 2018 © Richard Langdon / Sailing Energy

Consistency has been hard to achieve for most crews in the challenging conditions at Kiel Week but a handful of New Zealand crews are in the hunt for medals, including Andy Maloney who leads the Finn.

Alex Maloney and Molly Meech are second in the 49erFX, Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey third in the 49er, Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders third in the Nacra, Josh Junior third in the Finn and Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox fourth in the men's 470 with one more day of gold fleet racing before Sunday night's (NZ time) medal races.

Maloney won today's first race in the heavyweight dinghy and backed it up with a 14th and seventh to hold a one-point lead over Great Britain's Ed Wright and fellow Kiwi Josh Junior.

"It's great to be at the top of the leaderboard but there are plenty of races to come so I'll keep chipping away," said Maloney, who is in his first season sailing a Finn.

"Josh and I are sailing pretty solidly this week, just trying to do the basics well. It's difficult in the large 80-boat fleet to be consistent in the shifty conditions. It's a matter of playing with what you've got the best you can and not worrying about the other 70-odd boats too much.

"We've got another three races scheduled tomorrow in what's forecast to be another windy day. I'll just aim to keep doing the basics well and the rest should take care of itself."

It's equally tight at the top of both the skiff classes, with only one point separating the top three in the 49er and three points between the top three in the 49erFX.

The women's skiff had reasonably benign conditions of 8-10 knots for their racing in the morning but the wind had increased significantly to more than 20 knots by the time the men's skiff hit the race course in the afternoon.

Although Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey banked some of their bigger scores of their regatta, other combinations struggled a lot more meaning the Kiwi pair jumped up to third overall and only one point behind the leaders Jonas Warrer and Jakob Precht Jensen of Denmark.

"It was super-tough racing today with 20-plus knots - super shifty and super challenging," Porebski said. "Each race was three laps so there were a lot of mark roundings and hairy situations with boating coming in on all sorts of angles. There's a bigger gold fleet than normal at this regatta with 30 boats so the start line is also pretty challenging.

"It looks like a lot of breeze again tomorrow so more of the same. We'll look to keep the boat upright and hopefully get around the course. Keep it simple and go fast."

Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn, who were third in the 49er going into the day after two wins and a second, had a few issues overnight and dropped to 11th and Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie are 16th with the highlight of their day a bullet in the first race of the day.

Maloney and Meech also won their first race of the day in the 49erFX and backed it up with a fifth and 13.5, which is their discard so far. The pair have been more consistent than most this week, with their discard the equal lowest of any combination in the top seven boats.

"The girls had a couple of really good races and a not-so-good race when they got a bit caught up [in other boats]," coach Nathan Handley said. "But overall it's going well. They need three more good ones tomorrow to secure a reasonable placing going into the medal race on Sunday."

Most of the rest of the New Zealand sailors are in and around the top 10, including Josh Armit (6th Laser Radial worlds), Liv Mackay and Micah Wilkinson (8th Nacra), Courtney and Brianna Reynolds-Smith (10th women's 470) and Susannah Pyatt (12th women's Laser Radial).

Results and standings after the third day of the Kiel Week regatta overnight (NZ time):

Men's 470 (49 boats)

1st: Anton Dahlberg / Fredrik Bergstrom (SWE) 2 5 1 1 1 (6) 2 - 12 points 2nd: Luke Patience / Chris Grube (GBR) 5 1 (26 BFD) 1 4 1 1 - 13 pts 3rd: Mathew Belcher / Will Ryan (AUS) 1 2 (13) 2 3 4 3 - 15 points

4th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) 4 2 (11) 3 6 3 4 - 22 pts

Women's 470 (28 boats)

1st: Nadine Bohm / Ann-Christin Goliab (GER) 2 4 3 (7) 3 4 6 - 22 pts 2nd: Silvia Mas / Patricia Cantero (ESP) 12 (29 UFD) 5 1 4 1 1 - 24 pts 3rd: Maria Bozi / Rafailina Klonaridou (GRE) 7 2 6 2 (29 BFD) 2 5 - 24 pts

10th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) 3 (16) 16 5 9 16 11 - 60 pts

49er (87 boats)

1st: Jonas Warrer / Jakob Precht Jensen (DEN) 5 11 5 5 1 (17) 11 1 - 39 pts 2nd: Federico Alonson / Arturo Alonson Tellechea (ESP) 3 (15) 3 1 7 5 7 14 - 40 3rd: Josh Porebski / Trent Ripey (NZL) 5 3 3 6 5 (21) 3 15 - 40 pts

11th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 15 2 1 1 9 18 13 (22) - 59 pts 16th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 4 4 28 15 6 1 (32) 17 - 75 pts

49erFX (54 boats)

1st: Dewi Couvert / Jeske Kisters (NED) 4 7 2 4 5 (24) 4 3 - 29 pts 2nd: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 3 4 1 10 6 1 5 (13.5) - 30 pts 3rd: Tina Lutz / Susann Beucke (GER) 5 3 3 1 8 4 8 (13.5) - 32 pts

Finn (79 boats)

1st: Andy Maloney (NZL) (15) 7 3 1 14 7 - 32 pts 2nd: Ed Wright (GBR) 3 4 13 (17) 12 1 - 33 pts 3rd: Josh Junior (NZL) 10 (20) 5 2 3 13 - 33 pts

Nacra 17 (44 boats)

1st: John Gimson / Anna Burnet (GBR) 3 2 (5) 1 3 1 3 2 - 15 pts 2nd: Jason Waterhouse / Lisa Darmanin (AUS) 1 1 1 2 3 6 (18) 5 - 19 pts 3rd: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) 2 5 1 5 4 5 6 (7) - 28 pts

8th: Liv Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 4 5 (24 DNF) 2 1 11 7 10 - 40 pts

Women's Laser Radial (82 boats)

1st: Maxime Jonker (NED) 1 1 1 1 1 - 4 pts 2nd: Line Flem Host (NOR) 1 (11) 1 4 1 - 7 pts 3rd: Manami Doi (JPN) 4 2 2 1 (5) - 9 pts

12th: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 5 11 (12) 3 6 - 25 pts

Laser Radial worlds (97 boats)

1st: Zac Littlewood (AUS) (4) 1 2 1 1 1 - 6 pts 2nd: Caelin Winchcombe (AUS) 2 2 1 2 2 (4) - 9 pts 3rd: Aleksander Arian (POL) 3 1 1 (10) 4 3 - 12 pts

6th: Josh Armit (NZL) 1 3 (47 DNC) 1 8 12 - 25 pts 44th: Caleb Armit (NZL) 5 34 21 18 44 (46) - 121 pts

Full results can be found by clicking here