Results days 1 & 2

Day 2 Photos - Suellen livesaildie.com

The sea breeze challenges continue

 

A sea breeze was again the order of the day on another sunny, warm Nelson day. The NNW sea breeze was in when the 104 boat fleet arrived on course, but again it was pretty light, patchy and shifty for the first two races of the day. However unlike yesterday, when it the breeze faded out early, today it freshened and gave us a decent hiking breeze for the third race of the day. The tide was again a factor, with a number of general recalls and the black flag getting a workout.

 

The leader board in all divisions is taking shape with the contest now at the half way point of the scheduled races. Racing in all fleets was again tight, and the variability in the breeze saw positions changing often through the races.

 

In the ILCA 6, Olympic rep Greta Pilkington really stamped her authority on the contest, scoring 2 races wins and a second to lead the contest by 8 points, and it's worth noting that she has a 2nd place as her current discard! Sam Clark (Y) from Murrays Bay won the second race and now sits 5th overall. He is third in the youths behind Tom Pilkington, who is now 3rd overall and Arran Begic in 4th overall, both of whom had an OCS today which they were luckily able to discard after the 5th race. Open mens sailor George Lane was however the other standout in the fleet today, being super consistent with a third and two 4th to move through to second overall. Chloe Turner continues to be the leading Youth Girl in 8th overall and she has established a solid lead over 2nd place both girl Kate Rasmussen. Miro Luxford was also looking good today, moving up the leaderboard with two 2nd places,  but rather unfortunately he somewhat undid the good work with an OCS in race 2. 

In the ILCA 7 the results were again dominated by the open sailors Caleb Armit and Dylan Forsyth, with Dylan again taking out the first race of the day but Caleb victorious in both the second and third races to lead Dylan by 1 point overall. U21's George Pilkington and  Zach Stibbe both had solid results in all 3 races to sit 3rd and 4th overall.  Just behind them a great contest for the overall Masters supremacy is developing between top GM Andrew Dellabarca, local AM Tim Pitcaithly and Whangarei Kris Dekke (M), who sit 5th, 6th and 7th overall after the 5 races. David Giles continues to lead the GGM's in 15th overall.

 

In the ILCA 6 masters fleet GM Werner Henig from Hamilton is having a blinder, winning the fresher third race today after scoring two 2nd places in the days earlier races to lead overall from Josh Edmonds (A), while defending champion Phil Wild (M) is clearly finding things a bit tough, but has done enough to sit 3rd overall. Sandra Williams had a fantastic day to convincingly take the lead in the women division from Helen Spencer, while Graham Tee continues to lead the GGM's. The starts also proved a challenge in this fleet, with GM Roger Winton winning the second race but then picking up an OCS in the days last race. Its tough at the top!

The ILCA 4 fleet is having a great contest. Local sailor Brooke Mundy won two of todays races to close the gap on Lucy Luxford, who won one race today but did enough to continue to lead overall. It also continues to be a close battle for the rest of the fleet, with all sailors again recording a top 3 placing in at least one race, ending the day with Madison Smith now third overall ahead of Ellie Tapper and Louis Yang.

So another great but challenging day in Nelson, with a clear advantage to those able to avoid the tide trap and get good starts without incurring the dreaded OCS! Tomorrow's forecast is again similar, with light to moderate sea breezes again expected. Another 3 races are scheduled, so there will be plenty of opportunities for everyone to improve or solidify their positions ahead of Sundays concluding 2 races.

Nick Page