NZL Sailing Team: Five Kiwi crews in the top 10 Day 3 of 49er, FX Nacra 17 Worlds in Canada
by Michael Brown/Yachting NZ 3 Sep 2022 10:35 AEST
3 September 2022
Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn (NZL) 49er - Day 3 - World Championship August 31st - September 5th, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada © Sailing Energy
The wind changed direction in Nova Scotia, mixing up the leaderboards with it, and it now means five New Zealand crews are in the top 10 halfway through the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 world championships.
The biggest movement was in the 49er fleet and the Kiwis made some good progress with Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn climbing from 15th to third and Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie jumping 19 places up to sixth overall.
Dunning Beck and Gunn won two of their four races on the final day of qualifying and McHardie and McKenzie also collected a bullet to go with three other top-10 results.
It was an extremely good return given the conditions, and many crews battled with the shifty offshore breezes and big pressure differences across the course.
"It went well for us today, but it was particularly difficult," Dunning Beck said. "Getting clear starts and going the right way paid well because the difference between the right and wrong shift was massive.
"We're sitting with a tidy scoresheet halfway through but it's been incredibly difficult racing. Gold fleet starts tomorrow, which means it only gets harder, so doing the same things and staying clean will be important."
Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson very nearly achieved that on their third day of racing in the Nacra 17 fleet. The pair started the day with a second and third but found themselves on the wrong side of the course when a right shift arrived, eventually finishing 17th in the final race of the day.
They are now fourth overall, only four points off third, with two more days of fleet racing before the top-10 medal race.
Italy's Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti appear to be sailing away with another Nacra 17 title, having won eight of the nine races to date, but the picture is far from clear in the 49erFX.
Alex Maloney and Olivia Hobbs continued their run of consistent scores with three top-10 results and are now fourth overall in the women's skiff. Jo Aleh and Molly Meech are ninth, and finished an up-and-down day with a fourth in the last race.
There's still likely to be plenty of movement in the 49erFX, especially as the 36 boats are racing as one fleet throughout the regatta, and one bad race can change the complexion of things very quickly.
"We really just worked to keep our heads out for the next pressure and we were happy to come away with three consistent results from the day in those conditions," Hobbs said. "There were a lot of snakes and ladders out there and it was pretty stressful at times.
"It feels good to be getting further into the regatta and we just want to keep chipping away and learning for the next few days because we still have a lot of racing to go."
Results and standings after Day 3 of the 49er, 49erFx and Nacra 17 World Championships in Nova Scotia:
49er (65 boats)
1st: Bart Lambriex / Floris van de Werken (NED) (12) 2 1 1 2 11 10 3 - 30 points
2nd: Diego Botin / Florian Trittel Paul (ESP) 6 1 7 3 (25) 8 7 2 - 34 pts
3rd: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) (9) 7 9 6 6 1 8 1 - 38 pts
6th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) (22) 5 4 22 9 8 3 1 - 52 pts
55th: Sam Bacon / Henry Gautrey (NZL) 13 20 30 26 24 24 (UFD) 27 - 164 pts
49erFX (36 boats)
1st: Vilma Bobeck / Rebecca Netzler (SWE) 5 3 2 7 1 3 5 (31) 19 - 45 pts
2nd: Odile van Aanholt / Annette Duetz (NED) 2 1 1 3 2 5 9 (29) 25 - 48 pts
3rd: Tamara Echegoyen / Paula Barcelo (ESP) 4 2 3 (24) 4 4 13 16 6 - 52 pts
4th: Alex Maloney / Olivia Hobbs (NZL) 10 (26) 13 4 7 9 6 8 7 - 64 pts
9th: Jo Aleh / Molly Meech (NZL) 9 20 8 8 3 10 26 (32) 4 - 88 pts
Nacra 17 (34 boats)
1st: Ruggero Tita / Caterina Banti (ITA) 1 1 1 1 1 1 (20) 1 1 - 8 pts
2nd: Gianluigi Ugolini / Maria Giubilei (ITA) 3 3 9 4 2 2 11 5 (18) - 39 pts
3rd: Sinem Kurtbay / Akseli Keskinen (FIN) 5 2 3 (14) 7 6 4 10 9 - 46 pts
4th: Micah Wilkinson / Erica Dawson (NZL) 7 8 2 9 8 11 2 3 (17) - 50 pts
Full results 49er.org/event/2022-world-championship/#49erresults