RS Feva Worlds: Kiwi crews win two races on Day 3
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 25 Jul 2019 09:20 BST
25 July 2019
Blake Hinsley and Nicholas Drummond (NZL) - Day 3 of the 2019 RS Feva World Championships, Follonica Bay, Italy © Elena Giolai / Fraglia Vela Riva
With a win and two seconds from three races sailed, Simon Cooke and Oskar Masfen have extended their lead in the RS Feva Open World Championships being sailed in Follonica, on the Tuscany coast.
New Zealand crews won two of the three races with Cooke/Masfen winning the second race of the day (Race 8) and Hinsley/Drummond winning race 9.
With a 29th place on their scorecard the second New Zealand crew of Blake Hinsley and Nicholas Drummond have dropped back to fifth overall in the series. Even though nine races have been contested, only the last three races sailed in the Gold fleet are being scored. Once a discard is taken into account the top of the leaderboard would be tied between Cooke/Masfen and a British crew who also have a first and a second, but a worse discard than the Kiwis. Hinsley/Drummond lie in third overall with the discard taken into account. However once four races are sailed another permutation comes into the overall points scoring method.
Today was the first day of racing in the Gold Silver and Bronze fleets, with the breeze once again being in the light to moderate range.
The sea breeze took a little longer to settle than it had in previous days. The first race took place in light and fickle wind and the committee decided to postpone the racing to allow the breeze to become more consistent. The waves and wind built to a steady 10-12 knots.
Under the points system used for the series where the six races sailed in the Qualification round are discounted, a British crew, Quinn Edmonds and Fin Oliver (Chew Valley Lake SC) posted a 1,2,11 scorecard and lie in second overall after being ranked in 20th overall after the Qualification Round.
The top ten overall in the Gold fleet is dominated by British, New Zealand and French crews. There are 200 crews from 23 nations competing in the series.
Scrubbing the points from the Qualification round has undone the good work by the third placed New Zealand crew Josh Hyde and Zach Fong, who had a premature start in the first race of the day - when they were judged to have crossed the start line inside the final minute and scored maximum points, their second race was not much better scoring 43rd in the 67 boat Gold fleet. Their last race of the day was their best scoring eighth place.
That could alter later in the series when after four races are sailed in the Gold, Silver and Bronze fleets are completed, crews have to include their overall placing score from the Qualification Round. In another scoring quirk the RS Feva World Championship title can only be won by a crew who are both aged under 18years. The overall points winner (regardless of age) becomes the Open Winner of the RS Feva World Championship.
In the Silver fleet, Amelie Marseille and Daniel Brodie (NZL) lie in 47th overall, after three races - where their best result was a 17th place in the final race of the day,
Racing continues overnight NZT, and light to moderate conditions are again expected to prevail.
See the provisional results for each fleet.
The 2021 RS Feva World Championships are coming to New Zealand and are likely to be held at the same time as the America's Cup in an effort to attract a large international fleet.