New NZL Sailing Team 49er sailors Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski were the first New Zealanders to win a race at Weymouths ISAF Sailing World Cup event Skandia Sail for Gold after a long first day on the water which saw them, and several other fleets racing until after 7:30pm.
Racing was described as a bit of a lottery for some fleets today at this 2012 Olympic venue, with light patchy winds and unseasonable cold temperatures forcing several postponements during the day.
Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski were the teams shining stars on this opening day with the win in their third race and the previous results of sixth and seventh, they are left fourth overall in the highly competitive 49er fleet of 38 boats.
London 2012 Olympic bound 49er crew Peter Burling and Blair Tuke also handled the light airs well with a 3, 10, 14 in the opening races. Twelve more races remain for the 49er before the final medal race for the top ten, so the hard work is far from done for both NZL teams.
JP Tobin got down to business in the RS:X mens second race of the day, after a slow first race where he finished 19th. Only a few seconds separated the top eight finishers in this second windsurfing race; JP finished 6th right amongst the lead pack, in which anybody could have won. Overall after the first two races, JP sits in tenth.
Several other kiwis are inside the top ten after one or two races; Hamish Pepper and Jim Turner in the Star class finished their only race in 8th after going a distance offshore in the morning only to be sent home to wait for new wind to arrive and head back out again in the afternoon . As Jim described, it was long day on the water.
Natalia Kosinska in the Womens RS:X finished inside the top ten for both of her races, and goes into day two in 9th overall.
The 2012 Olympic Womens 470 crew Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie are in 8th overall after finishing 5th and 15th in their two races, and Josh Junior, now racing in the Finn instead of the Laser finished his first race in 10th with Matt Coutts only one place behind in 11th.
Both of New Zealands top 2.4mR Paralympic class sailors excelled in their first two races, leaving Brett Willcock with 4th overall and Paul Francis with 8th overall in the 36 boat and deeply talented fleet. One of these two sailors will be hoping to represent NZ at the Paralympic Games which take place two weeks after the Olympic Games at the same venue.
The Finn, Star, Skud 18 and mens Laser had just one race today, while the Laser Radial, RS:X and 470s (both mens and women) had two. The 49ers had three races, and the Womens Match Racing crew commenced the round robin.
The forecast for the second day of racing is for much more wind, but along with that will come rain.
SAIL FOR GOLD - DAY 1 STANDINGS
470 (mens)
12th Paul Snow Hansen and Jason Saunders (9, 4)
470 (womens)
8th Jo Aleh and Olivia (Polly) Powrie (5,15)
49er
4th Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski (7, 6, 1)
16th Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (3, 10, 14)
Finn
10th Josh Junior (10)
11th Matt Coutts (11)
19th Rob Coutts (19)
Laser
21st Sam Meech (11)
27th Andrew Murdoch(14)
29th Andy Maloney (15)
Laser Radial
47th Sara Winther (19, 26)
RS:X (mens)
10th JP Tobin (19, 6)
RS:X (womens)
9th Natalia Kosinska (9, 10)
30th Steffanie Williams (25, 31)
Star
8th Hamish Pepper and Jim Turner (8)
Womens Match Racing
0 Win, 4 loss- Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen, Susannah Pyatt
