Barfoot & Thompson Laser Nationals Day 2 - Weather Frustrates

Tom Saunders (NZL) - Laser - Day 8 - Hempel Sailing World Championships 2018 - Aarhus, Denmark, August 2018 © Sailing Energy / World Sailing

Day 2 of the Barfoot and Thompson NZ Laser Nationals dawned with a 10 knot easterly promising a great days sailing.

Race 3 started bang on time at midday in a good 8-knot breeze and all 5 fleets completed the race while the breeze held. However, a rainstorm was on the horizon. By the time it arrived and passed through after the first divisions had started race 2, the wind had boxed the compass and then died completely, resulting in Race 4 being abandoned with the fleet becalmed. After a frustrating 3 hour wait, with the breeze repeatedly filling in over parts but not all the course and then dying again, the committee called it a day and the fleet returned to shore.

In the one completed race, the results followed yesterdays form in most fleets. In the Standards Tom Saunders again had the best of a close battle with Sam Meech, giving him a slim 2 point lead over Sam overall. German visitor Philipp Buhl and NZ squad member George Gautrey (U21) were very close behind the leading pair today and now sit 4th and 5th overall as they still carry UFD's from race 1 to sit behind a consistent Luke Deegan in 3rd overall.

In the Radial fleet Caleb Armit (Y) managed to squeeze past Scott Leith (O) right on the finish line to claim the bullet, with a 3rd place for Harrison Baker (Y) sufficient to keep him in the overall lead ahead of Caleb and Scott. The leading woman remains Annabelle Rennie Younger in 4th overall. She was 9th today after taking a dip off the wind but keeps a 6 point buffer from her leading competition for the women's title, Olivia Christie. Luke Cashmore, Albert Stanley and Thomas Mulcahy were all consistent again today to all stay well in contention.

In the 4.7 local Daniel Brodie had a good win to take the overall lead from yesterdays leader, Napier's Jacob Goodall, while Wakatipu's Aidan Gordon also stayed well in contention with a second.

In the Standard Masters Dave Ridley (A) continued his excellent form, taking his third bullet ahead of defending champ Andrew Dellabarca (M), with Matt Blakey's (A) 3rd keeping him in 2nd overall. In the Radial Masters defending champ Ed Tam (M) continues to hold the overall lead after a 3rd today. GM Werner Hennig took out today's race in spite of almost forgetting to go through the finish line, realising his mistake just in time to get back and hold off Richard Blakey (M) in second and Ed in a photo finish. Stew Taylor (M) and Kevin Jenkins (GM) both got top 6 results to round out a closely bunched top 5.

After today's postponement, an extra race is scheduled for all fleets tomorrow so hopefully, conditions will be favourable and allow a continuation of the top quality racing we have enjoyed to date.

Complete results are on the NZLA website nzlaser.org/content/2019-nz-laser-nationals-results