Paris2024: Women's Skiff: 3,2,1 GO! for the Kiwis

Jo Aleh/Molly Meech (NZL) - 49er - Marseille - Paris2024 Olympic Regatta - July 30, 2024 © World Sailing / Sander van der Borch

Top international sailing correspondent writes from Marseille and the Paris 2024 sailing regatta

What a difference a day makes.

The multi-medalled 49erFX team from New Zealand had been languishing in last place little more than a day ago, but with today’s stronger breeze on the Calanques race course made for a different style of skiff racing.

Jo Aleh and Molly Meech stretched their legs, leaned back in their trapeze harnesses, and got the Kiwi skiff planing into the finish line with scores of 3,2,1. They now lie in seventh overall and if they could enjoy another day like that, New Zealand could even be back in medal contention.

Right back on form for the Kiwi Women’s Skiff team (Photo by World Sailing / Sander van der Borch) The Swedes were also looking forward to stretching their legs and ready to roll out their super strength. Their starts looked a little over conservative and Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler were often bounced off on to port tack behind their faster-starting rivals to look for some clear air. Once they found a clear lane then the Swedes could exert their boatspeed advantage to claims scores of 2,1,5 which lifts them to third overall in the standings.

A shaky start for the Dutch with a 19th place but Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz hit their stride in the next heats to take finishes of 3,2. With the French struggling to maintain their devastating form in the lighter breeze of the first two days, the Dutch moved into the lead and relegate France to the silver medal position.

Men’s Skiff: Spanish Fly

A good day for the Dutch in the women’s skiff, but no comeback for the Dutch favourites in the Men’s Skiff fleet. Bart Lambriex and Floris van de Werken have been the standout team of recent years, winning three out of the last four world championships. But they just haven’t been able to find their groove so far this week. A lacklustre day keeps them in 10th overall, yet still within striking distance of the podium if the Dutch can reignite the magic on the final day of fleet racing on Wednesday.

It’s probably fair to say that no one hit their groove today. With the wind blowing over the top of the 500-metre high Calanques mountains, it was extremely patchy and highly variable in wind strength. Somehow the Spanish team, Diego Botin and Florian Trittel, managed to grind out three great finishes from a difficult afternoon, scores of 3,2,2 lifting them into an 11-point lead over Ireland’s Rob Dickson and Sean Waddilove who maintain second overall.

Spanish make sense of the chaos in the Men’s Skiff racing (Photo by World Sailing / Sander van der Borch) Former yellow bib wearers Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie (NZL) just couldn’t make sense of the fluky conditions and drop to third while a race win at the end of a strong day lifts Great Britain’s James Peters and Fynn Sterritt to fourth overall. It’s very tight on points between a lot of teams, however, so Wednesday will be equally or even more stressful than today.