Day 2 of the annual Sail Auckland Regatta

by Virginia Stracey-Clitherow, on 10 Feb 2001 Sail Auckland Day 2

Auckland, NZL: The City of Sails lived up to its name today as over 200 sailors turned
out on Auckland Harbour today for Day 2 of the annual Sail Auckland Regatta (fri 9 - Mon
12 February).
The addition of 29ers, Flying Fifteens, Tornado catamarans and a large fleet of
youngsters in Optimist dinghies swelled the ranks from yesterday's opening day.

8 knots of breeze steadily built up to 12 - 15 knots by mid afternoon making for perfect
sailing conditions and allowing some of the bigger and heavier sailors to make up for lost
time

In the 470 class, the lead has swung between Cantabrian siblings Stephen & Philip
Keen and newly paired Auckland duo Andrew Brown & Jamie Hunt. Both crews chased
each other round the course in today's 3 races to be neck & neck at the halfway mark.
In the women's contest, Sydney Olympian Melinda Henshaw has enlisted the
assistance of Sharon Ferris and is trading blows with Shelley Hesson & Linda Dickson.
Henshaw is fractionally ahead. With another 6 races to sail tomorrow and Monday, who
will eventually claim the National Championship titles will be anybody's guess.

Today is the first time Daniel Slater & Nathan Handley's 49er has been in the water
since Sydney 2000, both having been snapped up by Team New Zealand. Italy's 49er
Olympic rep Francesco Bruni (in Auckland with the Prada syndicate) has taken to the
water this weekend as well, but he simply can't catch Slater & Handley round the
racetrack. Local youngster (& experienced 29er sailor) Mark Kennedy has paired up in
the 49er with Norwegian sailor Allan Norregard. They are leading the fleet having sailed
all of yesterday's 3 races unlike Slater & Bruni who started today with no points on the
board.

Barbara Kendall & Grant Beck have traded their sailboards for a Hobie Cat catamaran,
racing off Takapuna Beach today. Consistent sailing, including a 2nd & 3rd moved Beck
& Kendall moved up to 2nd overall at one stage today, and breathing down the neck of
fleet leaders Garth & Katie Stewart. However a 6th at the end of the day moved them
back to 4th overall.

Recent P Class Tauranga Cup winner Scott Kennedy (Auckland) has traded up, taking
the helm of the larger and significantly faster 29er skiff crewed by previous P Class
Tanner Cup champion Brad Thom (Auckland). For the first two races, Kennedy just could
not catch Geoff Woolley (Kohimarama) & Scott Wilkinson (North Shore), finally
overtaking him in the 3rd race to be 2nd overall.

Sydney Olympian Sarah Macky and visiting Czech Olympic rep Lenka Smidova suffered
from a mix-up at the start of today's racing on the Europe course. Both are now carrying
expensive penalty scores, masking the fact that they shadowed each other round the
track in today's four races ahead of the rest of the fleet with an even distribution of 1st
and 2nds between them. Abby Mason, who benefitted from the starting muddle and took
the race, then had to follow the two Olympians for the rest of the day.

Jon Paul Tobin broke a boom during today's first race of the Mistral boards, putting him
out of the next two races. The Bay of Plenty speedster was back for the last race,
winning with ease. The rest of the New Zealanders could not keep up with the classy
Hong Kong and Japanese boardsailors, including Atlanta gold medallist & Sydney
Olympian Lai Shan Lee (HKG) and Japan's Sydney rep Kenjo Motokazu who have
claimed top spots in both the women's and men's fleets respectively.

Auckland's Roger Craddock & Steve Cunnold are leading the Flying Fifteen two-man
keelboats with a clean sweep of firsts, followed by Robin Coutts and Nick Davenport.