Ashley retains third place after day two

Shifty and difficult conditions challenged sailors competing on day two at Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia MAPFRE 2010 Regatta in Palma de Majorca, Spain. Members of the NZL Sailing Team returned mixed results on the second day of the six day regatta.

Tom Ashley remains the best placed of the New Zealanders retaining third position in the Men’s RS:X fleet, who added two races overnight. Ashley was second and then eighth, contributing to a total pointscore of 19 points, well ahead of the Greek sailor, Kokkalanis in fourth place who is eight points behind.

Israel’s Zubari retains the lead, but now shares it with Heidegger of Italy. Both had a race win last night, and a total of twelve points.

Michael Bullot moves from ninth up to fifth in the Laser class after a win in the first race sailed on day two. The Murrays Bay Sailing Club representative was then 16th in the second race, and leapfrogs Andrew Murdoch to be the best placed of the six kiwis competing in this class.

Murdoch suffers in the standings due to a DNF in the first race of the day, which sees him tumble down to 31st until he can discard the result. In the second race of the day he placed second.

Andy Maloney now lies 14th, while young Sam Meech returned his best race result so far with a third place in his second race to take 24th position in the overall standings. All six kiwi Laser sailors are currently placed within the top quarter of the 131 boat fleet which puts them all in good shape to make the gold fleet for the finals rounds.

Over in the Women’s 470 Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie’s two race results for the day illustrate the nature of the challenging shifty conditions. They started the day with a 29th, and then followed that up with a second place. They slip from fifth position to seventh in the standings.

Kate Ellingham (pictured above) managed to climb four places up the leaderboard into ninth with her performance on day two of the regatta. Showing an improved result in each race as the regatta unfolds, Ellingham was 12th then 11th in last night’s racing.

Racing continues tomorrow. The schedule allows for six days of racing in total in the Olympic and Paralympic classes with the winners set to be decided on March 2nd in Spain. This is the third of seven events in the 2009-10 ISAF Sailing World Cup series after Melbourne and Miami.

The New Zealand team is supported by coaches Ian Neely, Mark Howard, Nathan Handley, Jez Fanstone and David Robertson.

See the regatta website for news, history, entry lists, and results.

New Zealand’s Current Standings

Laser (131 entries)
Mike Bullot – 5th (12, 4, 1, 16)
Andy Maloney – 14th (16, 2, 15, 20)
Sam Meech – 24th (35, 19, 14, 3)
Max Andrews – 28th (20, 33, 10, 14)
Andrew Murdoch – 31st (4, 8, DNF, 2)
Josh Junior – 32nd (31, 5, 3, 42)

Laser Radial (70 entries)
Sara Winther – 38th (17, BFD, 33)

470 Double-handed dinghy
Women’s – 41 entries
Jo Aleh & Olivia Powrie – 7th (1, 13, 29, 2)
Men’s - 93 entries
Paul Snow-Hansen & Jason Saunders – 23rd (4, 13, 7, 32)

RS:X
Men’s – 72 entries
Tom Ashley – 3rd (3, 6, 2, 8)
Antonio Cozzolino – 39th (31, 45, 48, 36)
Women’s – 41 entries
Kate Ellingham – 9th (15, 13, 12, 11)
Jazmine Lynch – 32nd (30, OCS, 30, 23)

Finn (54 entries)
Matt Coutts – 32nd (22, 42)

New Zealand’s Coaching Team:
Ian Neely
Mark Howard
Nathan Handley
Jez Fanstone
David Robertson

For more information contact:
Jodie Bakewell-White
Yachting New Zealand
Tel. 021 709 065
Email. jodie@yachtingnz.org.nz

About this Regatta:
The numbers for 2010:
680 boats
1,000 sailors
40 nations

The Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofia – MAPFRE is held in Majorca, in the renowned bay of Palma, every year around Easter and will celebrate its 41st anniversary in 2010. It is the third of seven events in the 2009-10 ISAF Sailing World Cup series.

The Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofia – MAPFRE is the starting point of the European sailing season every year. The ten Olympic sailing events are joined by the Dragon fleet as invited class.