Sheffield Laser Nationals: Leaders consolidate on Day 3
by Nick Page NZLA 20 Jan 2018 10:58 GMT
20 January 2018
Radial Start, Day 3, 2018 NZ Laser Nationals - Naval Point Sailing Club © NZ Laser Assoc
Day 3 provided a classic day with a bit of everything weather wise giving everyone a chance at a top result.
It was another hot Christchurch day with temperatures in the early 30's and the fleet was initially held ashore waiting for breeze but by midday a light southerly had set in so PRO Ross May got the fleet on the water and headed over to Charteris Bay for the start of race 6. The breeze was a patchy 5 to 8 knots with an outgoing tide, which proved a challenge to many, although the top Open and Radial sailors showed their class, consolidating their positions at the top of the fleet. The Southerly then died and after an hour or so wait a really solid sea breeze blowing up to about 20 knots accompanied by a good seaway came in for the subsequent two races of the day.
In the Standard Open fleet last years champion Andrew McKenzie and Muritai's George Gautrey were in a class of their own, with Andrew (2/1/1) again just taking the honours for the day from George (1/2/2) to consolidate his claim to this years title. Alastair Gifford and Matt Kempkers continued to fight it out for the third spot with Alastair holding a nice 5 point margin over Matt going into the final day tomorrow while a consistent Rohan Lord managed a 4th in race 7 to break the monopoly of the top 4.
In the Radial, World Youth champion Josh Armit continued his seemingly unstoppable progress to the title, winning all 3 of todays races convincingly to retain his perfect score. In contrast the contest for second is extremely close with Susannah Pyatt holding just a 1 point lead over Scott Leith. Scott had a shocker in race 1 today so now both Scott and Susannah have serious discards so both will be looking for 2 good races tomorrow as they endeavour to secure second spot. Behind then everyone had a bit of a mixed day, with Albert Stanley continuing to hold 4th spot and second in the Youths while Annabel Rennie Younger is second in the Womens and 5th overall. In the Radial Youth Womens Samantha Stock holds onto a two point advantage over Elly Warren, with tomorrows two races critical to deciding the winner and who will go into the NZL regatta in front in the World Youth Womens selection contest.
In spite of "observations" from a few Masters about how to survive 3 races a day both Masters fleets again enjoyed excellent racing. In the Standard Masters Andrew Dellabarca (M) had a hiccup in race 7 with an OCS but a 1/2 in the other two races still has him in front of Ian Baker (AM) by 6 points going into the final day in spite of Ian winning both today's windy races. Rob Woodward (M) moved into a clear third overall while Nick Page continues to lead the GM's but slipped to 5th overall after a poor effort in race 7 to sit just a point behind Pupuke club mate Tony Nicholson (M) who moved up to 4th overall.
All the leaders in the Masters Radial found the light race a challenge but the status quo was reestablished with the onset of the sea breeze to leave Ed Tam (M) leading from Hamish Atkinson (GM) with yesterdays star Jenny Armstrong (WM) holding 3rd after posting the most consistent 3 race results for the day with a 4/2/2.
With only one discard allowable everyone will need at least one good result tomorrow. The forecast is again looking a little tricky tomorrow but hopefully the predicted sea breeze will eventuate early enough to allow the final 2 races to be completed as scheduled before the 15:30 cutoff time.