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The Laser is one of the most competitive of the Olympic classes internationally but three Kiwis have shown good early-season form to be in the top 10 after two days at the Princess Sofia regatta in Palma.
Andrew McKenzie is fourth after two days of racing in the Laser fleet in Palma. Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing.
A massive 183 Lasers lined up for the first major multi-class European regatta of the season, which meant avoiding big scores was critical over the first couple of days and the top three New Zealanders escaped relatively unscathed.
Sam Meech banked a series of good scores (2, 5 8) in today's three races to sit in second, one point behind 2016 youth world champion Finn Alexander of Australia and three points ahead of world champion Pavlos Kontides (Cyprus). Andrew McKenzie continued his good form and is fourth with fellow Kiwi Tom Saunders jumping up to ninth with three top 10 results including a win in his second race.
The top 60 boats now move into gold fleet, which also includes 2015 youth sailing world championships silver medallist George Gautrey (34th), but they will all be hoping for some more consistent breeze than the first two days which was a bit of a lottery at times.
"Conditions started off pretty promisingly today with some good breeze and it was nice to hike for a little bit but it slowly deterioated and the wind got light and fickle, which made it quite stressful," Saunders said. "You could look really good at times and pretty average at times so it was weighing up risk versus reward.
"I'm pretty happy with the day, especially to come away without any big scores. Hopefully there will be a bit more breeze tomorrow but today was meant to be good also so we will see what we get. We move onto gold fleet now so racing starts again and hopefully I can bang out a couple of consistent results to set me up for the rest of the week."
Meech is in a strong position, with his worst result and discard so far the eighth he collected in the last race. It gives him a little more breathing space than others like McKenzie who has a 43rd on his record along with three top-10s.
"I’ve already got a large discard after a tough race today and it gets harder moving into gold fleet," said McKenzie, who won his last race of the day. "From now the plan will be to try to get some consistent races in the top 10.
"I’ve had a few good scores by sticking to the basics but it’s really easy to come unstuck out there."
A healthy number of New Zealand crews are well placed in other fleets, with Alex Maloney and Molly Meech ninth in the 49erFX, Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders 10th and Liv Mackay and Micah Wilkinson 14th in the Nacra 17, Andy Maloney 13th in the Finn and Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox 16th in the men's 470.
The 49er is another class to attract big a big fleet with 91 boats and Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey were content to make the top-25 gold fleet.
They climbed up to 22nd overnight with three decent results, including a fourth and third, but are looking forward to more breeze in the coming days.
"The regatta starts again tomorrow," Porebski said. "It has been a really tough week with light and shifty winds so we are relieved to get through to fight another day.
"Two days of qualifying is always really tough, especially when the breeze is light and there are a lot of 49ers on each course so a few really good boats unfortunately missed out [on gold fleet] so we are just relieved to scrape through. Hopefully we can move up the leaderboard over the next three days."
Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn just missed out on gold fleet after placing 29th after two days.
The Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta represents the first major European event for the majority of the 26 New Zealand sailors competing in Palma and has attracted nearly 1200 sailors and 840 boats from more than 60 nations across 13 classes.
Results and standings after the second day of the Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta in Palma overnight (NZ time):
Men's 470 (79 boats)
1st: Mathew Belcher / William Ryan (AUS) 2 (13) 3 1 - 6 points
2nd: Tetsuya Isozaki / Akira Takayanagi (JPN) 4 (18) 2 1 - 7 pts
3rd: Simon Diesch / Philipp Autenrieth (GER) 1 (14) 4 5 - 10 pts
16th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Daniel Willcox (NZL) 9 12 (14) 2 - 23 pts
Women's 470 (48 boats)
1st: Noya Bar-Am / Nina Amir (ISR) 4 3 (10) 2 - 9 pts
2nd: Linda Fahrni / Maja Siegentahler (SUI) 3 2 4 (8) - 9 pts
3rd: Nadine Boehm / Ann-Christin Goliass (GER) 5 1 4 (18) - 10 pts
29th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) (15) 13 9 12 - 33 pts
49er (91 boats)
1st: Dylan Fletcher-Scott / Stuart Bithell (GBR) (12) 1 5 1 1 2 - 10 pts
2nd Kévin Fischer / Yann Jauvin (FRA) 3 2 (12) 1 6 3 - 15 pts
3rd: Lukasz Przybytek / Pawel Kolodzinski (POL) 8 5 2 (UFD) 1 2 - 18 pts
22nd: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 10 8 (13) 4 3 12 - 37 pts
29th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) (15) 13 15 3 12 1 - 44 pts
49erFX (54 boats)
1st: Annemiek Bekkering / Annette Duetz (NED) 1 1 (8) 1 3 1 - 7 pts
2nd: Ida Marie Baad Nielsen / Marie Thusgaard Olsen 1 2 (8) 2 5 6 - 16 pts
3rd: Charlotte Dobson / Saskia Tidey (GER) 2 2 (25) 6 1 8 - 19 pts
9th: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 2 (13) 1 3 12 7 - 25 pts
Finn (73 boats)
1st: Nils Theuninck (SUI) 1 (12) 9 4 - 14 pts
2nd: Giles Scott (GBR) 6 3 8 (11) - 17 pts
3rd: Luke Muller (USA) 3 14 2 (26) - 19 pts
13th: Andy Maloney (NZL) 16 (48) 19 6 - 41 pts
42nd: Josh Junior (54) 38 37 24 - 99 pts
51st: Raymond Hall (NZL) (60) 17 54 57 - 128 pts
62nd: Brendan McCarty (NZL) 63 50 (BFD) 55 - 168 pts
Laser (183 boats)
1st: Finn Alexander (AUS) 1 5 1 (31) - 7 pts
2nd: Sam Meech (NZL) 1 2 5 (8) - 8 pts
3rd: Pavlos Kontides (CYP) (21) 3 4 4 - 11 pts
4th: Andrew McKenzie (NZL) 5 7 (43) 1 - 13 pts
9th: Tom Saunders (NZL) (30) 6 1 9 - 16 pts
34th: George Gautrey (NZL) (27) 8 19 7 - 34 pts
146th: Matthew Kempkers (NZL) 43 27 46 (47) - 116 pts
Laser Radial (113 boats)
1st: Vasileia Karachaliou (GRE) 2 (5) 2 4 - 8 pts
2nd: Marit Bouwmeester (NED) (16) 1 3 6 - 10 pts
3rd: Maud Jayet (SUI) 1 (32) 8 2 - 11 pts
32nd: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) (40) 4 36 7 - 47 pts
44th: Olivia Christie (NZL) 12 (40) 14 28 - 54 pts
Nacra 17 (47 boats)
1st: Ben Saxton / Nicola Boniface (GBR) 2 1 (3) 1 1 2 - 7 pts
2nd: Ruggero Tita / Caterina Banti (ITA) 1 1 3 (6) 1 3 - 9 pts
3rd: Fernando Echavarri / Tara Pacheco (ESP) 10 (13) 2 1 2 1 - 16 pts
10th: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) 5 (14) 4 10 3 8 - 30 pts
14th: Liv Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 17 3 9 4 4 (18) - 37 pts
Men's RS:X (118 boards)
1st: Yoav Cohen (ISR) 1 1 (2) 1 - 3 pts
2nd: Bing Ye (CHN) 1 1 (6) 4 - 6 pts
3rd: Mateo Sanz Lanz (SUI) 2 3 1 (4) - 6 pts
80th: Antonio Cozzolino (NZL) 27 21 (33) 23 - 71 pts
Full results here
