470 Class sets the Standard

In what became a pretty windy event today at Skandia Sail for Gold in Weymouth, the 470 Class met the challenging conditions head on and completed its scheduled races 3 and 4 today without incident ..... whilst the other classes were either kept ashore or sent back to shore until conditions improved.

This morning opened with a light rain and not much wind, with initially postponement out on the water as the wind shifted around with passing rain storms. The race committee finally set a course in a southerly and started a sequence.

Immediately after the second race the breeze picked up dramatically to around 18-22 knots. And that's whe the 470 Class came into it's own. As the other fleets were either sent ashore or kept ashore – it was the 470 men and women who were out there in the breeze and rain and sea and just kept on racing!

It was a glory day for the French pairing of Pierre Leboucher and Vincent Garos, who scored double bullets today, which added to their first and third from yesterday sees them lead 2010 World Champions and World Cup winners Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page (AUS) by eight points. Coming in third after a great opening day which included a bullet are Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell (GBR).

Another two races were sailed in the Women's 470 fleet which sees the Japanese Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata take the lead with consistent results of two fifths to sit ahead of 2010 World Champions Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout (NED). Current Sailing World Cup standing leaders Ingrid Petitjean and Nadège Douroux of France are third.

Petitjean recapped on their races today, "The first race for us was good, we had moderate wind and then conditions increased during the race. Then there was a big change in the second race today as the wind increased a lot. For us the second race wasn't as good. We didn't have the best start and had to play catch up so as a result we lost a few places which is frustrating, but we are still in the game."

The 470's were tracked today - check out the racing.

Two races are scheduled for each fleet tomorrow, Wednesday 11 August 2010.

470 Woman Results (After four races)
1. Kondo and Tabata JPN - 21 points
2. Westerhof and Berkhout NED - 23 points
3. Petitjean and Douroux FRA - 38 points
4. Koch and Sommer DEN - 40 points
5. Rol and DeFrance FRA - 45 points

470 Men Results (After four races)
1. Leboucher and Garos FRA - 6 points
2. Belcher and Page AUS - 14 points
3. Patience and Bithell - 15 points
4. Fantela and Marenic CRO - 19 points
5. Calabrese and De la Fuente - 24 points

More Information:
Event Website
Tracking

Image: Kondo and Tabata JPN in action at the 2009 470 World Championships © Soy
Source: 470 Team USA (Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving) and Skandia Sail for Gold website