09 Jun 2011
All Change On the 470 Leaderboard on Day 4
It has taken only two races for the leaderboard in the 470 Men and Women fleets to be turned upside down, with new teams heading up both fleets at the 2011 Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta. An awesome day for Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie (NZL) whose double bullet scoreline delivered them into first overall in the 470 Women.
A relative calm descended on Weymouth Bay this morning, after the battering from the day before. But there was no less tension or aggression in the racing in Day Four of Skandia Sail for Gold, as the fleets moved into the endgame.
470 Men
Pierre Leboucher and Vincent Garos won today's opening race 7, and followed it up with an unlucky 13 – which was lucky for them as their combined score from today still helped push them up into first overall having discarded the 13.
Back ashore after racing, Vincent Garos commented, “We had strong winds again today so it was hard conditions and very physical. We were very happy with the first race of the day because we won. In the second race we had a lot of pressure on us and we tried to do our best but we had a very bad start and finished 13th. We are still very happy with where we are overall because tomorrow is the last day before the medal race and we are in the first position. We will have to keep working hard for the rest of the regatta and try to win - we won last year and would love to win again. “
Toppling down are Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page who claimed the yellow jersey going into today's racing, but will be out on the water tomorrow in the third placed red jerseys, after posting an 8,15. Remaining solid in second overall are Sweden's Anton Dahlberg and Sebastian Ostling with a 22,5. It is incredibly close in the men's top 10 – so anything can happen and it is still all open as to who will make it into the top 10 going through to the medal race.
A second consecutive day of disappointing results for Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic who wrapped up the day in #13 overall after a 17,22 posting. They will be working hard to shift themselves back into the top 10 to qualify through to Saturday's medal race. Having started this regatta so well, they will be stretching themselves tomorrow.
In the 470 men Silver Fleet, it is Fabio Pillar and Gustavo Thiesen who lead the pack followed by the Russians and Portuguese – and there battle to lead this fleet will continue tomorrow.
Top 10 Overall
| Pos | Nation | Sail No | HelmName | CrewName | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | Pts |
| 1 | FRA | 44 | PIERRE Leboucher | VINCENT Garos | 6 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 1 | -13 | 26 |
| 2 | SWE | 346 | DAHLBERG Anton | OSTLING Sebastian | 9 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 2 | -22 | 5 | 30 |
| 3 | AUS | 11 | BELCHER Mathew | PAGE Malcolm | -17 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 15 | 35 |
| 4 | ISR | 7 | KLIGER Gideon | SELA Eran | 1 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 2 | 3 | -18 | 2 | 36 |
| 5 | GRE | 1 | MANTIS Panagiotis | KAGIALIS Pavlos | 5 | 9 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 10 | -13 | 7 | 45 |
| 6 | ESP | 9 | BARREIROS Onan | SARMIENTO Aaron | 1 | 12 | 2 | -30 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 12 | 46 |
| 7 | GBR | 844 | PATIENCE Luke | BITHELL Stuart | 4 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 10 | -17 | 48 |
| 8 | POR | 1 | MARINHO Alvaro | NUNES Miguel | 3 | 4 | 13 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 11 | -16 | 49 |
| 9 | FRA | 7 | CHARBONNIER Nicolas | MION Jeremie | 15 | 7 | 3 | 7 | -17 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 50 |
| 10 | GBR | 854 | ASHER Nic | WILLIS Elliot | 4 | 10 | 11 | 7 | (DSQ [40.0]) | 5 | 6 | 10 | 53 |
470 Women
The Kiwi women, Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie owned the Women’s 470 course today with a superb couple of victories that took them past the British pairing of Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark and into the lead as the final rounds got underway today. The British had their worst day so far with a 16,8 to sit 10 points adrift of the kiwis in second. The Israeli team of Gil Cohen and Vered Bouskila who posted a 10,10 to leap up into third overall.
Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie were on form on day four returning two race wins as the finals rounds got underway in the Women’s 470 event, and jumping into the lead. The girls will be looking for a solid performance on the penultimate day of racing tomorrow, to consolidate their lead and then sail a smart medal race.
Reflecting on the day's performance, Olivia Powrie said, “It’s been a pretty good day, with good conditions on the water and quite exciting. Pretty good breeze and the waves got a bit bigger as the tides turned. It’s been a little bit mixed, probably windier if anything but it’s good, we like a breeze to sail in. It’s actually pretty similar to sailing back home in New Zealand, the water, the breeze but a much better venue; it’s such a good set-up. This is our third year here, so we are getting the hang of it more and more I guess. It’s quite tricky; there are a lot of different factors at play so it does make it a bit difficult. I think the 470 class is quite close at the moment, there always seems to be someone new at the regatta and you never quite know who’s going to be up there so always exciting."
An impressive performance from former Optimist World Champion Tina Lutz today, who sailed a very confident 4,3 scoreline to leap into #8 overall and become the top placed German boat. She carries a tidy points margin over the next placed boats, so has every chance of remaining in the top 10 and going through to Saturday's medal race. If Tina can hold this place of #8 it will mark her best ever performance at an ISAF World Cup event.
Top 10 Overall
| Pos | Nation | SailNo | Helm Name | Crew Name | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | Pts |
| 1 | NZL | 75 | ALEH Jo | POWRIE Olivia | 6 | (DSQ [47.0]) | 2 | 7 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 33 |
| 2 | GBR | 847 | MILLS Hannah | CLARK Saskia | 1 | -20 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 16 | 8 | 43 |
| 3 | ISR | 311 | COHEN Gil | BOUSKILA Vered | 11 | 11 | -15 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 49 |
| 4 | FRA | 9 | LECOINTRE Camille | GERON Mathilde | 7 | -23 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 13 | 2 | 53 |
| 5 | ESP | 696 | PACHECO Tara | BETANZOS Berta | (DSQ [47.0]) | 6 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 12 | 14 | 59 |
| 6 | ITA | 23 | CONTI Giulia | MICOL Giovanna | 13 | 1 | 4 | -18 | 13 | 10 | 2 | 18 | 61 |
| 7 | GBR | 850 | CLARK Penny | HUGHES Katrina | (DSQ [47.0]) | 17 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 26 | 4 | 67 |
| 8 | GER | 61 | LUTZ Tina | BEUCKE Susann | 12 | 12 | 19 | -33 | 10 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 73 |
| 9 | USA | 1757 | MAXWELL Erin | K. FARRAR Isabelle | 9 | 3 | 8 | -24 | 15 | 17 | 22 | 6 | 80 |
| 10 | USA | 1736 | CLARK Amanda | LIHAN Sarah | 17 | 13 | 20 | 14 | -25 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 84 |
Racing for the 470 men and women gets underway at 1100 hours local time on Friday 10 June. Catch up with the event radio for the latest updates and don't forget to follow the 470 Class blog, delivered via a special widget, on the event site or directly on www.470.org. Want to put the 470 Class blog directly on your website, then CLICK HERE
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More Information:
Event Website
Results
Top Image: New Zealand's Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie © All images Thom Touw