New Zealand sits atop both the 49er and 49erFX leader boards at the end of day four of the 2016 49er and 49erFX World Championships in Clearwater, Florida.
Blair Tuke and Peter Burling are holding a good lead. Picture: Jen Edney
49er pair of Tauranga sailor Peter Burling and Blair Tuke now lead by 28 points. The 49erFX pair Alex Maloney and Tauranga sailor Molly Meech climbed into the overall lead in the women's fleet with two days of competition to run.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke's clean winning streak has ended with a 3-1-2-11 score-card from the day's four races. They discard the 11th as their worst result.
The New Zealanders' overall performance on day four of the regatta was still among the best of the fleet.
Reigning Olympic champions Nathan Outteridge and Ian Jensen, from Australia, are lying 2nd overall behind Burling and Tuke, but 28 points adrift. Currently in 3rd overall are Diego Botin and Iago Lopez Marra of Spain, five points back from the Aussies.
Tomorrow will see the fleet split into gold and silver with the top 25 boats progressing into gold fleet racing from here.
Conditions today were described as light and tricky with the breeze decreasing as the day progressed.
In the 49erFX Alex Maloney and Molly Meech continued their strong form into day four of the regatta and now have the overall lead in the battle for women's 49erFX 2016 world title.
Starting the day with a 3rd place the NZL Sailing Team pair went on to take race seven of the series in convincing style crossing the line well clear of the fleet. In their next race they placed 10th, but discard that as their worst and will go into gold fleet racing tomorrow having not finished outside the top ten in any of their races so far.
'We got out there this morning and were quite surprised at how nice a wind there was and the first two races went really well for us, and then the last one we had a bit of a bad start and managed to sail through the fleet for a top ten finish so overall I think we're really happy with today,” says Molly.
'Our attitude is to just take each day as it comes, and race by race, and just try and stay consistent.”
Their leading margin is narrow with Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz of Germany just three points behind them, and Brazil's Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze only one point behind.
'Molly and I have had a pretty big focus on our light air speed in the last few years and we're really happy with how far we've come with our light air settings,” says Alex.
New Zealand's young pair of Erica Dawson and Ellie Copeland (from the Aon Fast Track Squad) continue to impress with a couple of excellent races today including a 6th and a 5th. They're in 15th overall at the end of day four and have easily made the cut for gold fleet, an impressive achievement for them.
In the mixed crewed multi hull Nacra 17 Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders from the NZL Sailing Team are 18th – behind the Aon Fast Track Squad crew of Olivia Mackay and Micah Wilkinson in 15th, In a 43 boat fleet.
Medal races are planned for Sunday 14th February, Florida time.
New Zealand's current standings…
49er World Championship
1st Peter Burling & Blair Tuke (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 11)
31st Markus Somerville & Josh Porebski (DNF, 29, 22, 7, 6, 26, 2, 12, 7)
32nd Logan Dunning Beck & Jack Simpson (22, 7, 13, 17, 21, 16, BFD, 10, 6)
47th Isaac McHardie & Trent Rippey (11, 22, 29, 9, 3, 26, 28, 26, 20)
49erFX World Championship
1st Alexandra Maloney & Molly Meech (6, 4, 7, 2, 1, 3, 1, 10)
15th Erica Dawson & Ellie Copeland (4, 8, 10, 11, OCS, 6, 5, 12)
Nacra 17 Championship
15th Olivia Mackay & Micah Wilkinson (12, 26, 27, 13, 21, 9, 20, 5, 32, 7, 4, 17)
18th Gemma Jones & Jason Saunders (28, 22, 2, 24, 8, 18, 30, 17, 17, 15, 17, 4)
Links
There are two main websites where you can follow all the action. http://www.saillife.com
for the Nacra17 and http://49er.org/event/2016-world-championship/
for all 49er and 49erFX updates.
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