WAIS Sailors in Action in the Netherlands
Australian sailors have built on their strong starts to the fifth round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup with a number of good performances on day two in Holland sending crews up the leader board.
Competitors were faced with conditions far removed from those on day one, with light breeze delaying racing and then testing the sailors once the action got underway.
In the 470 fleet reigning World Champions Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page had a consistent day with two third place finishes moving them from their overnight fifth to second overall, just three points off the lead.
“The conditions were incredibly variable today and to come away from that being consistent was a good day’s racing,” said Belcher. “We had a better day than a lot of those around us and are up to second now so there’s plenty to fight for tomorrow.
“The depth of the 470 class is so strong that if you have a good day you can move up but if not you will lose out very quickly, the fleet is close with numbers one, two and four in the world here, so we’ll aim to put in another solid day tomorrow and see where we end up,” he said.
Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen had a mixed day in the 49er fleet, starting with a 22nd before claiming a race win and a third to move up from 12th to third overall.
“It was a bit up and down today and the 22nd hurt us as we only get to drop one race at this regatta and we were disqualified from the first race yesterday,” said Jensen. “Saying that there’s a lot of racing still to go this week, it’s still early days and hopefully we can come through and win again.”
This regatta is the pair’s first together since the opening round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Melbourne last December.
“It’s good to be back in the boat,” said Outteridge. “We’ve done a lot of training back home in Australia with our training partners but it’s good to get back to Europe and go racing, this event is a great lead in to Sail for Gold in Weymouth next week.”
Tom Slingsby ended the day third in the Laser class after a 10th and a race win on day two.
“It was a very tricky day today, we had one race called off and the other two could very easily have gone the same way with big wind shifts,” said the reigning Laser World Champion. “First and second are equal on points after the first four races and we’re expecting a bit more breeze from now on so scoring will even out and hopefully I’ll knock a few points off them each day.”
The Australian Women’s Match Racing Team crew of Katie Spithill, Jessica Eastwell and Lucinda Whitty has qualified for the repechage round robin and a shot at the quarter-finals after a hard fought five races on day two.
Fellow match racers Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Rayshele Martin will race in the silver fleet on day three after finishing seventh in the opening round robin.
Price and crew, competing in the first ISAF Sailing World Cup event together, had three wins and five losses, narrowly missing out on a spot in the repechage after losing to their fellow Australians in a must win final race.
Finn sailor Brendan Casey is ninth after a mixed day, with a 34th in race one before finishing off with his best race of the regatta so far, a third.
Australian Sailing Squad crews also continued to impress in Holland, with RS:X competitor Jessica Crisp the best placed in second overall, winning the opening race of day two and then backing the result up with a fifth.
470 sailors Sam Kivell and Will Ryan ended the day in a hard fought fifth position after a fourth and a second in the light conditions.
The pair is well within reach of the leaders, including Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page.
In the 49er class Victorian brothers Will and Sam Phillips have also continued their good run and are currently sixth overall, ahead of WAIS athlete Tom Johnson and Rhys Mara in 25th and fellow WAIS athletes Steven Thomas and Nick Brownie in 26th.
Ryan Palk moved his way up to eighth in the Laser fleet with a race win and a 19th, with Australian Sailing Team member Tom Burton 15th and Ashley Brunning 20th. Jared West is 33rd after a third in the first race of the day, while James Burman is 41st, Mark Whittington 61st and Ki-Raphael Sulkowski is 78th.
Tasmanian Matthew Bugg continued his good form in the 2.4mR class with a seventh and a fourth in the two races late on Wednesday afternoon keeping him third overall.
Queenslander Ashley Stoddart is 19th in the Laser Radial class, six places ahead of fellow Aussie Gabrielle King.
New South Wales brothers Alexander and Patrick Conway are 35th in the 470, while in the Finn class Tim Castles is 15th, Rob McMillan 18th, Shaun Wells 30th and Oliver Tweddell is 37th.
In the RS:X women’s class Allison Shreeve is ninth and Joanna Sterling 21st, while in the RS:X men’s class Jimmy Levy is the best placed Australian in 25th, ahead of Luke Baillie in 39th, Tim Gourlay in 44th and Patrick Vos in 47th.
– Yachting Australia