Sailing World Cup: Womens 470 continue good form at Enoshima
by Michael Brown/Yachting NZ 29 Aug 2019 12:09 BST
29 August 2019
Susannah Pyatt / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) - 470 - Enoshima ,Round 1 of the 2020 World Cup Series - August 29, 2019 © Jesus Renedo / Sailing Energy / World Sailing
Susannah Pyatt and Brianna Reynolds-Smith calmly went about their business on a sometimes chaotic day at the World Cup Series regatta in Enoshima and find themselves in contention halfway through the event.
The New Zealand women's 470 combination, who started sailing together less than 12 months ago, achieved their first top-three finish at a World Cup Series event and are fourth overall, only two points off second.
They clearly enjoyed the 15-25 knot winds and 2.5m swells at the Olympic venue, although many didn't across the 10 classes with capsizes, gear breakages and retirements a feature of the day.
The last race of the 49erFX was particularly dramatic, with only five of the 36 boats finishing in a strengthening breeze. Alex Maloney and Molly Meech were among those who failed to finish in the time limit when they capsized trying to lower their kite with boats upending all around them.
"We were in a decent position, but there was just carnage on the course," Maloney said. "It was survival mode, especially with boats to avoid. We did everything not to capsize and thought we were doing the safe thing by dropping the kite but unfortunately went over. The whole fleet had a lot on so well done to the five who finished.
"We still feel like there's a lot to play for tomorrow and will look to push the start line harder in the hope of coming away with three good races which will hopefully put us in a good position heading into the medal race."
They are still well in the hunt in sixth overall, and were second in the second race of the day, and will be aware that virtually every combination has at least one big score on their card.
Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox are also in the mix in ninth in the men's 470, Liv Mackay and Jason Saunders are 10th in the Nacra 17 and Tom Saunders jumped nearly 20 places in the Laser and is now 12th.
Pyatt and Reynolds-Smith have found form of late, and earlier this month qualified the women's 470 for New Zealand for next year's Olympics with their 15th at the 470 world championships in Enoshima.
Their next task is to convince the Olympic selectors to pick them for the Games so they'll be targeting a good result at this week's World Cup Series regatta.
"It was a good day," Pyatt said. "We came out of the worlds with a pretty specific list of things to work on and we are just chipping away at them and just trying to keep making gains. We seem to be improving with every day we go on the water, so we are pretty happy with that.
"We took a lot of confidence out of the worlds, especially qualifying the class for the Olympics. We are just trying to build and work our way to the top of the fleet."
Their third place in today's opening race was something of a breakthrough, although it could have ended more dramatically.
"The highlight of the day would have to be the first race," Pyatt explained. "We were fourth around the final mark and the boat in front of us blew their kite and we were about to as do the same and we were like, 'nah, we can hold it'. We managed to get under them and get our first top-three finish [at this level] so we were really stoked with that one."
Snow-Hansen and Willcox lost ground in the men's 470, having started the day in front, but Saunders was one of the big movers, improving 19 places in the highly-competitive Laser fleet. He was sixth, 14th and third in today's three races, which represented a good response after a disappointing opening day.
"Today was pretty epic," Saunders said. "The swell was in which made the downwinds a lot of fun, but you had to go upwind to enjoy the rides back down so three races in that breeze was brutal.
"I had a better day today and had some good moments downwind but a capsize in race two was disappointing when I was in a good position. But I can’t fault myself for pushing it. Obviously day one was a write-off, so I just had to reset and start again. I'm going to need some more low scores to get back in contention but in our fleet it's very easy to collect points so we'll see."
Olympic bronze medallist Sam Meech will be banking on others faltering after finding himself in the unfamiliar position of 20th after five races.
"I felt like I had a bit of seaweed attached to my foils," he said. "I couldn't really get the boat going even though they were conditions I really love. Still lots to play for but it's a little bit frustrating. I would like to be sailing a better than this but it doesn't seem to be clicking."
Results and standings after day 3 of the Hempel World Cup Series regatta in Enoshima, Japan, today:
Men's 470 (32 boats)
1st: Mathew Belcher / Will Ryan (AUS) (5) 1 1 2 - 4 pts
2nd: Jordi Xamma / Nicolas Rodriguez (ESP) (25) 3 5 1 - 9 pts
3rd: Simon Diesch / Philipp Autenrieth (GER) (26) 2 4 4 - 10 pts
9th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) 1 10 14 (18) - 25 point
Women's 470 (21 boats)
1st: Nia Jerwood / Monique de Vries (AUS) (10) 4 2 2 - 8 pts
2nd: Elena Berta / Bianca Caruso (ITA) (13) 6 1 6 - 13 pts
3rd: Silvia Depares / Patricia Cantero (ESP) 2 7 5 (10) - 14 pts
4th: Susannah Pyatt / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) (8) 3 4 8 - 15 pts
49er (37 boats)
1st: Tim Fischer / Fabian Graf (GER) 3 6 3 6 (14) 6 - 24 pts
2nd: Dominik Buksak / Szymon Wierzbicki (POL) 2 4 14 (38 DNF) 9 4 - 33 pts
3rd: Federico Tellechea / Arturo Tellechea (ESP) 7 (31) 1 1 8 18 - 35 pts
22nd: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 32 25 10 16 (38 DNF) 13 - 96 pts
26th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 1 24 (38 RET) 14 38 DNF 38 DNF - 115 pts
49erFX (36 boats)
1st: Annemiek Bekkering / Annette Duetz (NED) 4 9 (37 BFD) 3 3 - 19 pts
2ndL Klara Wester / Rebecca Netzler (SWE) 6 3 6 6 (37 DNF) - 21 pts
3rd: Julie Bossard / Aude Compan (FRA) (11) 8 7 11 2 - 28 pts
6th: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 12 11 10 2 (37 DNF) - 35 pts
Nacra 17 (32 boats)
1st: Ben Saxton / Nicola Boniface (GBR) 1 4 (6) 1 6 - 12 pts
2nd: Jason Waterhouse / Lisa Darmanin (AUS) 7 2 (33 DNF) 3 2 - 14 pts
3rd: Nathan Outteridege / Haylee Outteridge (AUS) 5 3 2 4 (19) - 14 pts
10th: Liv Mackay / Jason Saunders (NZL) (28) 20 13 11 3 - 47 pts
17th: Gemma Jones / Josh Porebski - 21 11 (26) 15 11 - 58 pts
26th: Micah Wilkinson / Erica Dawson (NZL) 26 1620 (33 UFD) 18 - 80 pts
Laser (51 boats)
1st: Pavlos Kontides (CYP) 2 (9) 1 5 2 - 10 pts
2nd: Tonci Stipanovic (CRO) 5 3 7 4 (49) - 19 pts
3rd: Jean Baptiste Bernaz (FRA) 3 12 4 (52 RET) 4 - 23 pts
12th: Tom Saunders (NZL) 26 (33) 6 14 3 - 49 pts
20th: Sam Meech (NZL) 23 (31) 10 12 27 - 72 pts
27th: George Gautrey (NZL) (45) 15 22 30 21 - 88 pts
Laser Radial (49 boats)
1st: Emma Plasschaert (BEL) 1 10 8 (15) 7 - 26 pts
2nd: Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) (13) 12 1 13 2 - 28 pts
3rd: Manami Doi (JPN) 3 5 7 14 (18) - 29 pts
41st: Olivia Christie (NZL) 26 (45) 34 40 31 - 131 pts
45th: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (NZL) (47) 44 30 32 36 - 142 pts
49th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith (NZL) 45 (48) 42 43 41 - 171 pts
Women's RS:X (24 boards)
1st: Yunxiu Lu (CHN) (6) 5 1 1 5 1 1 1 - 15 pts
2nd: Charline Picon (FRA) 4 4 4 2 3 2 7 (11) - 26 pts
3rd: Katy Spychakov (ISR) 2 8 7 3 (11) 3 2 2 - 27 pts
18th: Veerle ten Have (NZL) 22 22 (24) 13 15 16 20 15 - 123 pts
Full results click here