2000 Kenwood Cup - Day Three
by Susan McKeag 3 Aug 2000 11:11 BST
Kiwis Come Good As Winds Return To Paradise
Aussies bite back to stay in front - New Zealand Takes 1st, 2nd, 4th in Race 3
With a 1st, a 2nd and a 4th in Race 3 of the 2000 Kenwood Cup, New Zealand
took a total of 23 points to claw back almost all of the Australian lead in
the twelfth running of this international team championship for
offshore race boats. The defenders (New Zealand won the Kenwood Cup in
1998) pulled back to within just 3 points off the series leaders. But
Australia bit back hard with a first, second and seventh in the windward/
leeward which followed the ocean triangle to keep the Kiwi challenge at
bay. Even so, with 122 points to the leaders' 130 New Zealand has halved
Australia's advantage to just 8 points.
For this second day of inshore racing the breeze at last returned to
Hawaii, and the 29 boats in the fleet at last enjoyed the sort of racing
they have come for and for which the series is famous: steady Trade Winds
breeze of around 20 knots, big rolling seas, blue skies and blazing sun.
It was a blessed relief after the frustrations of the past few days, when
the effects of Tropical Storm Daniel - which at one stage threatened
Waikiki itself with 60 knots winds and which caused the abandonment of
Monday's practice session and yesterday's second race - blocked off the
seasonal Trades. The racers responded with some magnificently spectacular
sailing - and just enough incidents to keep the photographers, the
copy-writers and the repair men busy. In the tight-fought Farr 40 group
racing within Class C Masato Fujimaki's Foundation found herself squeezed
over the starting line by the pin-end bunch and had to go round the end to
re-start. Doing this she came across the Kenwood's always pressing
spectator fleet and, baulked, bounced off the leeward end committee boat,
happily suffering no permanent damage. Not so fortunate was Andrew Taylor
in Andiamo, the reserve boat for the New Zealand team: in the stiff
conditions the Davidson 55's hydraulics blew apart, causing serious control
difficulties with the rig. Andiamo started the second race, but withdrew
shortly afterwards.
In the first of today's two races - round a traditional old-style Olympic
course - Naohika Sera's Farr 47 Sea Hawk, with Ray Davis driving and Tom
Dodson calling tactics, just pipped Hideo Matsuda's Big Apple III. The
Farr 45 has Dean Barker steering, with the core of the new generation of
Team New Zealand crew on board, including Joey Allen, James Dagg and Tom
Dodson's brother Rick. In the second race it was Geoffrey A Ross in his
Farr 49 Yendys who led the Australian rally, with Simon Whiston keeping the
Smile on his team-mates faces in the eponymous Beneteau 40.7 with brother
Neil filling third slot Fruit Machine. The English-born brothers sail
sister-ships, and have been having a rich harvest of silverware this
season.
In the Farr 40s, John Kilroy Jnr and Phillipe Kahn spent the day keeping
each other at bay, sailing tack for tack and gybe for gybe and ending the
afternoon honours even, each with a first and second. Kahn took the first
race and Kilroy the second.
In the other one-design fleet - the J105's - Sam Hock's Jose Cervo slipped
to third in today's second race but nonetheless leads overall, thanks to a
win this morning to add to yesterday's second place.
Racing continues tomorrow, Thursday, with the first of the re-vamped
regatta's distance races, the 55-miler from Diamond Head round the corner
of Oahu to Kanehoe and return.
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