From light to squally

The first day of racing got underway in tricky conditions at Sail Melbourne

Nine of the 13 Olympic and Invited Classes at Sail Melbourne faced extremely light and shifty conditions as they sailed their first races from host club Sandringham Yacht Club on Port Phillip this afternoon, with racing getting underway later than anticipated.

The general consensus from the competitors was that this is what Olympic sailors may face when they go to the Beijing Games in 2008, so they might as well get on with it.

"It was really light and fluky to start, but it kept going left, left, left, till it got to 35 knots – it was a testing day," said 470 world champion Nathan Wilmot.

Difficult for many was adapting from the light stuff and then having to deal with the squally increased winds that hit the course later in the afternoon. These conditions produced mixed results in some classes, but not all.

For New Zealander Aaron McIntosh, competing in the Tornado class for the first time at Sail Melbourne, "it was a little frustrating in the first race – we got caught out of the breeze round the first mark, but we're a new team and we're learning. The second race was a different set of conditions and it was great sailing. The British team (Leigh McMillan and Will Howden) and Bundy (Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby from Australia), were just a notch quicker."

Australian Tornado crew Rohan Langworthy and David Hart, are the youngest and oldest crew in the Tornado respectively. Langworthy commented this afternoon, "we were fantastic in the first race, but just awful in the second," while Sail Melbourne newcomer McMillan (GBR) said, "we got in just in time I think. The conditions were certainly different today. The first race was pretty light, but you just had to deal with it. It's definitely good practice – apparently conditions will be light in Beijing."

In fact, with the late squally conditions, the usual breakages occurred and course boats were kept on their toes towing many boats ashore.

At the end of day one, Bundock and Ashby lead the Tornado class, following a win and a second place, with the Brits just one point behind, scoring a third and a win. Aaron McIntosh and Bruce Kendall are a further three points away.

Mat Belcher and Nick Behrens (AUS) showed they mean business, winning the only 470 Men's race of the day; just pipping the Japanese crew, Kazuto Seki and Syouichi Yanagawa, over the line, with Wilmot and Page third.

"We missed the start – we were a little rusty out there today," said Wilmot. "We couldn't even read the flags right, but it's good to be back at Sail Melbourne." "I thought we were pretty disgraceful," added a rueful Page.

Following one race in the Women's 470, the Japanese were looking very strong. The pairing of Chizuko Ijima and Sayaka Kato lead following their seventh place in the combined fleet, beating many of their male counterparts. The West Australian girls Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson, who finished ninth in the combined fleet are second. Just 19 seconds behind them came Ai Kondo and Naoko Kamata (JPN).

Anthony Nossiter (AUS), the 2000 and 2004 Finn Olympian leads that class following two bullets. Time away with the +39 America's Cup syndicate has done nothing to dampen his skills. Ricky Ironmonger, a Melbourne sailor in the early stages of his Finn campaign, came up with two second places today, his local knowledge obviously paid dividends. William Wild (AUS) is currently third.

With a number of newcomers in the 49er class, the end of the regatta will show just who the form crews are. Today's three races have yet another Japanese crew at the top of the leaderboard, with Kenjiro Todoroki and Kenji Takahashi scoring two seconds and a first to lead by four points from William Phillips and Jon Newman (AUS) and Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin (AUS) third, just one point behind Phillips.

Outteridge is back on track following a serious accident on his way to Sail Melbourne last year in which he suffered spine damage. He has humorously called his boat "Spineless".

Dual Olympian Nicky Bethwaite (AUS), sailing this event with a new crew combination of Julie Grimshaw and Petronella De Jong, still managed a win and a second place to lead the Yngling keelboat from class newcomers, Nicky Souter, Angela Farrell and Sarah Willmot (AUS).

Souter, Australia's top ranked female match racer, comes fresh from her Sydney-Hobart record breaking triple win on super maxi Wild Oats. "We feel very relaxed. I am happy with the way things are going," Souter commented today. The three have only sailed the Yngling five times and look like being a force to be reckoned with.

Hamish Jarrett, Chris David and Vaden Saunders (AUS) round out the top three, with Jeanne-Claude Strong, Neville Wittey and Ruth McCance fourth. Strong is down one female crew member, so her coach Wittey, filled in. "It certainly gives me a different perspective, being aboard, rather than on the coach boat, but it will be good for all of us – it will give me a better feel for what's going on."

The famous fraternal twin sisters, Pat and Joyce Warn are back with their young crew, Tneal Kawalla. The ladies, now in their mid 70's, are sixth placed overall, but third in the Women's, despite not finishing the second race. A light crew, the heavier winds brought them ashore early. However, they are still very competitive and plan on going to the Yngling Worlds in Europe later this year.

Hong Kong and Japan feature in the top three of the new Olympic RS:X sailboard class. Wai Kei Chan (HK) leads Masako Imai (JPN) and Wai Man Chan (HK), following one race. The leader finished second in the Mistral class at Sail Melbourne last year and third placed Chan won the Mistral, giving an indication that the switch to the RS:X has not been too much of a problem.

New Formula Windsurfing world champion, Allison Shreeve (AUS) finished the day in seventh place. This is her first competition in the new class.

Casper Bouman (NED) leads the Men's RS:X following one race. Steve Allen (AUS) finished second. He finished 12th at the recent Sail Melbourne Formula Windsurfing Worlds – the best of the Australian results. Howard Chung (TPE) holds down third place in the RS:X.

Tom Slingsby (AUS), back racing after missing the Laser Worlds following a shin injury, won the only Laser race of the day to lead from Matias Del Solar (CHI), with Olympian Kevin Lim (MAS) third.

In the new Olympic class Laser Radial, Sarah Winther (NZL) leads Xu Lijia (CHI) and Krystal Weir (AUS) following two races. Of the top three, Weir is the only one to score a win, but her seventh place in the opening race dropped her down to third.

The 2.4mR class finished two races, with Michael Leydon (AUS) leading Peter Russell (AUS) by one point and Michael McLean (AUS) by a further point. Prior to racing, McLean said he would be rusty, not having sailed for some time due to work commitments, but his worries proved unfounded.

Racing continues from 10.00am on Port Phillip tomorrow. The OK Dinghies, Tasars, 420 and Laser 4.7 start their competition on Thursday.

Results:

Tornado:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Nationality	R1	R2	Tot
1	Darren Bundock	Glenn Ashby	AUS	2	1	3
2	Leigh McMillan	Will Howden	GBR	1	3	4
3	Aaron Mcintosh	Bruce Kendall	NZL	3	4	7
4	Rohan Langworthy	David Hart	AUS	7	2	9
5	Carolijn Brouwer	Sebbe Godefroid	BEL	4	6	10
6	Andrew Macpherson	Greg Lynch	AUS	5	5	10
7	Matthew Punch	Jack Punch		6	7	13
8	David Rutledge	Hugh Rutledge	AUS	9.00F	9.00F	18

49er:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Nationality	R1	R2	R3	Tot
1	Kenjiro Todoroki	Kenji Takahashi	JPN	2	2	1	5
2	William Phillips	Jon Newman	AUS	6	1	2	9
3	Nathan Outteridge	Ben Austin	AUS	3	3	4	10
4	Jake Bartrom	Craig Prentice	NZL	1	4	7	12
5	Euan Mcnicol	Seve Jarvin	AUS	5	6	3	14
6	Scott Kennedy	Scott Illingworth	NZL	4	5	5	14
7	Michael O'shea	Nick Daly	AUS	7	8	6	21
8	Paul Newman	Christopher Maxted	Aus	13.00O	7	8	28
9	Tom Clout	Marcus Ashley-Jones	AUS	9	9	13.00C	31
10	Peter Vaiciurgis	Andrew Baglin	AUS	13.00O	10	9	32

Yngling:

Place	Helm	Crew	Crew	Nationality	Race 1	Race 2	Tot
1	Nicola Bethwaite	Julie Grimshaw	Petronella De Jong	AUS	1	2	3
2	Nicky Souter	Angela Farrell		AUS	5	1	6
3	Hamish Jarrett	Chris David	Vaden Saunders	AUS	3	3	6
4	Jeanne-claude Strong	Neville Wittey	Ruth McCance	AUS	2	5	7
5	Christopher Harper	Callum Thompson	Janet Harper	Aus	6	4	10
6	Patricia Warn	Joyce Warn		AUS	4	9.00F	13
7	Simone Deane	Lisa Sims	Nicole Follington	AUS	7	6	13
8	Jordan Reece	Michael Reece	Tom Reece	AUS	8	7	15

Laser Radial:

Pos	Helm	Nationality	R1	R2	Tot
1	Sara Winther	NZL	3	2	5
2	Xu Lijia	CHN	2	4	6
3	Krystal Weir	AUS	7	1	8
4	Shen Xiaoying	CHN	1	10	11
5	Corinne Meyer	SUI	4	7	11
6	Shen Huanqi	CHN	5	6	11
7	Nathalie Brugger	SUI	8	5	13
8	Veronika Fenclova	CZE	6	8	14
9	Megan De Lange	AUS	9	9	18
10	Satoko Hasegawa	JPN	13	11	24

Laser:

Pos	Helm	Nationality	R1	Tot
1	Thomas Slingsby	AUS	1	1
2	Matias Del Solar	CHI	2	2
3	Kevin Lim	MAS	3	3
4	David Wright	CAN	4	4
5	Hisaki Nagai	JPN	5	5
6	Mark Howhard	GBR	6	6
7	Borde Mickael	FRA	7	7
8	Dan Ward	GBR	8	8
9	Josh Junior	NZL	9	9
10	Martin Trcka	CZE	10	10

Finn:

Pos	Helm	Nationality	R1	R2	Tot
1	Anthony Nossiter	AUS	1	1	2
2	R Ironmonger	AUS	2	2	4
3	William Wild	AUS	4	3	7
4	John Shallvey	AUS	3	4	7
5	Brian Reynolds	AUS	6.00C	6.00C	12

470:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Nationality	R1	Tot
1	Mathew Belcher	Nick Behrens	AUS	1	1
2	Kazuto Seki	Syouichi Yanagawa	JPN	2	2
3	Nathan Wilmot	Malcolm Page	AUS	3	3
4	Geoffrey Woolley	Mark Overington	NZL	4	4
5	Dylan Clarke	Ayden Menzies	AUS	5	5
6	Roy Tay	Peiming Chung	SIN	6	6
7	Chizuko Ijima	Sayaka Kato	JPN	7	7
8	Mathieu Higgins	Timothy Lynch	AUS	8	8
9	Elise Rechichi	Tessa Parkinson	AUS	9	9
10	Luc Tasker	Brett Sharpe	AUS	10	10
11	Ai Kondo	Naoko Kamata	JPN	11	11
12	Shane Hughes	Andrew Hughes	AUS	12	12
13	Yuanzhen Xu	Terence Koh	SIN	13	13
14	Yuka Yoshisako	Noriko Ohkuma	JPN	14	14
15	Lauren Jeffries	Rike Ziegelmayer	AUS	15	15
16	David Von Felten	Adam Martin	AUS	16	16
17	Keith Swinton	Darren Palmer	AUS	17	17
18	Daniel Vaughan	Todd Cousens	AUS	18	18
19	Stacey Omay	Rayshele Martin	AUS	19	19
20	Liying Toh	Lee Ching Tok	SIN	20	20

2.4mR

Pos	Helm	Nationality	R1	R2	Tot
1	Michael Leydon	AUS	2	1	3
2	Peter Russell	AUS	1	3	4
3	Michael Mclean	AUS	3	2	5
4	Masakazu Suto	JPN	4	4	8
5	Michael Lemon	AUS	8	5	13
6	Alison Weatherly	AUS	5	8	13
7	Kathy Mclean	AUS	7	6	13
8	Pamela Murray	AUS	6	7	13

RS:X Men:

Pos	Helm	Nationality	R1	Tot
1	Casper Bouman	NED	1	1
2	Steve Allen	AUS	2	2
3	Howard Chung	TPE	3	3
4	Jp Tobin	NZL	4	4
5	Akinori Goshi	JPN	5	5
6	Ertugrul Icingir	TUR	6	6
7	Yuji Sugihara	JPN	7	7
8	Zhou Yuanguo	CHN	8	8
9	Corey Plant	AUS	9	9
10	Joeri Van Dijk	NED	10	10

RS:X Women:

Pos	Helm	Nationality	R1	Tot
1	Wai Kei Chan	HKG	1	1
2	Masako Imai	JPN	2	2
3	Wai Man Chan	HKG	3	3
4	Yasuko Kosuge	JPN	4	4
5	Yin Jian	CHN	5	5
6	Chen Qiubin	CHN	6	6
7	Allison Shreeve	AUS	7	7
8	Yuki Sunaga	JPN	8	8
9	Gourand Solenn	FRA	9	9
10	Anna Davis	AUS	14.00C	14