The 2013 Finn European Championship on now in Warnemunde, Germany has hit the midway mark and with six races sailed New Zealanders Josh Junior and Andrew Murdoch both feature in the top five sailors after another solid day on the water.
Fleet racing resumed today, the final three days and the NZL team were hoping for the famous Garda breeze, that we have planned for, to start rolling in - but alas by noon there was not even a puff and the temperature was in the high 30's.
New Zealand has made a great start at the 2013 Finn European Championship with Andrew Murdoch in 3rd and Josh Junior in 6th in Warnemunde, Germany while Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders also opened strongly at the 2013 Nacra 17 World Championship at The Hague, Netherlands.
Post-earthquake repairs are underway at the Waimakariri Sailing and Power Boat Club and are expected to be completed around three months from now.
“The Waimakariri Sailing and Powerboat Club will be the first Christchurch yacht club to start their earthquake repairs,” explains Regional Support Officer Kate Spackman. “With high tides now flooding the boat sheds underneath the club house the repairs will see the building lifted as well as repaired.”
All racing was cancelled today in the Nacra 17 Worlds in Scheveningen, The Hague. This morning at 10 AM the AP flag (postponement) was hoisted for both fleets, yellow and blue. In the afternoon a light sea breeze seemed to be coming in and the yellow fleet left the beach. Once in the starting area the wind was gone again and the multihulls couldn't even sail against the current. At 4 PM the committee decided to send the boats back to the beach, but still hoped for wind. At 6.30 PM the verdict came: all races cancelled for the day.
Following three days of registration, measurement and preparation racing begins at the 2013 Finn Open and Junior European Championships in Warnemünde, Germany on Monday. At the close of registration, 103 Finns were confirmed as entered, including 16 juniors, making this the largest Finn Europeans of all time.
Day 2 of the teams racing was a good day for our NZL International Yachting Trust Optiworlds team despite being narrowly beaten in both of their races by a very tight margin and strong teams - the last race lost on count-back.