Fleet racing begins with top ten results in all classes

The first day of fleet racing in Fremantle greeted every member of the NZL Sailing Team with a top ten finish. Today at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, racing in the Women’s RS:X, Laser Radial, Men’s 470 and the Finn class got underway.

Racing on separate courses off the coast of South West Australia, New Zealand was represented by 24 athletes spread through five racing areas.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders started their day to the sound of a gun, winning the first race of the 470 men’s blue fleet in variable conditions.

“The first race was still a building sea breeze, it was really patchy and shifty” Jason Saunders commented on the weather conditions. “We were able to take a look at the first flight that started ahead of us, and we learned a bit from that. We just sailed conservatively, and it turned out pretty well”.

The pair of 21 year olds followed this up with another top ten finish in the second race, by this time the ‘Fremantle Doctor’ had arrived with some stronger pressure.

Paul and Jason are generally pleased with their start here in Fremantle. “It was a good day, a solid start to the regatta. Tough conditions to race in though” said Jason.

Over on the Fremantle Inner Harbour, the NZL Women’s Match Racing squad, had a busy afternoon with five flights sailed- and of them four were wins. So far, this has been a great event for this team helmed by Stephanie Hazard, and they have bounced back well from the few losses they have had.

The Women’s Match Racers have nearly completed Round Robin 1, they have just one more race to be sailed against Anna Tunnicliffe of the USA, gold medallist in the Laser Radial class at the 2008 Olympics. Group ‘A’ match Racers have a day off tomorrow, and will resume racing on Wednesday.

In the Finn class, Dan Slater kept up with the leaders and finished his first race of the World Championships (also called the Finn Gold Cup) with a solid fifth, and followed that up with an 11th.

The Finn class has 77 entries from 33 nations, which is the strongest and deepest fleet assembled for the class in many years. The depth of talent is stunning, with 22 former Olympians, four Olympic medallists and four former world champions on the start line.

Sara Winther also had two top ten finishes today in the Laser Radial fleet.

The format for all fleet racing is a qualifying series followed by a final series, and then the medal race as the last race. The qualifying series includes splitting the large fleets into a grouping of yellow, blue or red, based on a seeding list which makes for equal size and skill in each group. The final series is when the fleet is split in to a Gold, Silver or Bronze, based on the results from the qualifying series.

The medal races are for the top ten competitors in each fleet only, and are planned to be raced close to shore on a confined course. This will make some exciting boat-on-boat action and viewing for spectators. All medal races will be streamed live online www.perth2011.com

Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships
New Zealand’s Current Standings

470 Men
5th- Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders (1, 9)
59th- Luke Stevenson and Sam Bullock (33, 26)
61st - Mike Snow-Hansen and Derek Snow (24, 36)
71st- James Turner and Matthew Jones (37, 31)
73rd- Gareth Moore and Ben Goodwin (35, 35)

Laser Radial
7th- Sara Winther (7, 6)
45th- Rachel Basevi (3, 42)
63rd- Miranda Powrie (26, 33)

Finn
13th -Dan Slater (5, 11)
30th-Matt Coutts (15, 15)
69th- Rob Coutts (35, 34)
51st- Brad Douglas (24, 26)
53rd- Nik Burfoot (26, 25)

RS:X Womens
28th -Natalia Kosinska (6, 24)
39th- Justina Sellers (16, 22)
49th- Steff Williams (26, 21)

Womens Match Racing
Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen, Susannah Pyatt
4 Wins: CDN Gordon, DEN Meldgaard, POR Goncalves, BRA Demetrio.
1 Loss: RUS Skudina.

About this event
The Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships feature the world’s best sailors in all ten Olympic classes from over 80 nations. Over 1200 Sailors will take part, contending for country qualification for the 2012 Olympic Games, and the World Championship titles.

The event officially opened on December 3rd with the start of the Women’s Match Racing and this class will race for the duration of the event, due to the round-robin format of match racing. All other classes will have seven days of racing that conclude with a double point medal race for the top ten.

The first week of racing (December 5 – 11) will feature the Women’s RS:X windsurfer, Women’s single person dinghy class Laser Radial, Men’s double handed class 470 and the Men’s one person dinghy heavy, the Finn class.

The second week of racing (December 12-18) will have all other classes compete, the Men’s RS:X Windsurfer, Men’s single person dinghy class Laser, Women’s double handed class 470, Men’s Skiff 49er. The Men’s Star class keelboat will race December 11-17

Visit the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships for results, tracking, live updates, and much more news from on and off the water. www.perth2011.com

A daily TV programme of approximately 25 minutes will also be available online http://www.sailing.org/tv

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