Frisky Day 2 in Weymouth

Day 2 at Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta was pretty exciting stuff, but equally a tough day. This qualification part of the event has so far delivered hard and long days in challenging conditions, which are diametrically opposed to the glory moments of the medal race. The 470 men are sailing in split fleets, with the women sailing as one fleet.

470 Women
There was a surprise pairing at the top of the 470 women’s leaderboard. Saskia Clark thought her Olympic aspirations could be over for 2012 when her former partner, double gold medallist Sarah Ayton, retired from Olympic sailing in February. But after carefully assessing her options, she paired up with Hannah Mills. Mills is a talented young sailor who had excelled at youth level, but not found the right partner at senior level. The pairing started to shine in Hyeres in April, finishing third in the World Cup Event. They now lead the fleet at Skandia Sail for Gold, having won two out of their four races sailed. Danish pairing Henriette Koch and Lene Sommer are seven points adrift in second after four races sailed, with Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol (ITA) a point further back in third.

The teams thriving in these conditions was clear to see – and today went to show how quickly overnight positions can be all muddled up.

Sporting the leader's yellow jersey, overnight leaders Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving broke their run of top 10 postings, with a 24 in race 4, to topple down the leaderboard to sixth overall after 4 races. Commented the pair, “Although an 8, 24 is a decent day, it didn't feel like that because we left points on the water in both races.” That's sailing - you know where you went wrong, you know what you should have done and tomorrow is another day to improve.

For some, there was another near disaster today with about half the fleet sailing towards the wrong mark in race 3 – the reaching mark, whilst the correct route was to the windward mark!

The Americans explained their approach to today's final race 4, “The breeze died down in between races, and then built dramatically during our starting sequence. We were overpowered for most of the race. Race 4, was one of those races where you make many small mistakes in a row that compound to larger mistakes. We didn't have a great start, and were forced to tack approximately 6 times before finding a clean lane going upwind. We rounded the windward mark in the mid-teens, and then slipped backward throughout the race until the last downwind and reach when we finally passed boats again! On the first downwind and second upwind the right side of the racecourse was good, and we weren't there. We finally clued into that on the second downwind. By the time we were reaching toward the finish it was gusting close to 20!”

However, after tomorrow's race 5, the discard will come into play and with many of the top teams then able to lose their DSQ from their scoreline after yesterday's disastrous wrong route around the race course – the points will start to get very close.

470 Men
There are 77 teams contesting the 470 men fleet, split into two fleets. Overnight leaders, Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic (CRO) have lost their top spot and dropped down to third. Replacing them to wear the yellow jersey on day 3 will be Pierre Leboucher and Vincent Garos (FRA) who sailed a tidy 4,6 pair of races today. They won in Hyeres, the last World Cup event they competed in, came second at Princess Sofia and fourth at Rolex Miami – add to that a world ranking of #7 and this team is pretty formidable.

Sweden’s Anton Dahlberg and Sebastian Ostling lie in second, improving their leaderboard position by three places from yesterday, assisted by a win in race 3.

Today's closing race win went to the Dutch brothers, Sven and Kalle Coster, who faired much better on the race course today compared to yesterday. Their scoreline of 13, 24, 3, 1 is steadily improving.

Competing in only their second ever World Cup event are South Africa's Asenathi Jim and Roger Hudson, who are in 66 overall. Catching up with the team yesterday Roger talked about an ever increasing learning curve. However, reigning World Champion Mat Belcher was impressed with their sailing and complimented their natural talent. The South Africans will be back in Weymouth in a few weeks' time for the 2011 Olympic Test Event as they focus on their campaign to represent South Africa at the 2012 Olympics.

Racing for the 470 men and women gets underway at 1100 hours local time. 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

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More Information:
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Top Image: Sweden's Lisa Ericson and Astrid Gabrielsson © All images Thom Touw