Goodie hangs on

At day three of racing at the Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères

Light conditions continue to prevail in the Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères with a westerly wind that provided the last chances to qualify for the Gold fleets that will race tomorrow. With most teams scoring highly, some fleets have seen new leaders.

Beijing Silver medallist Julien Bontemps have taken the lead in the RS:X men's division on the third day of racing in Hyères, also marking his come back into International competition. “This is my first regatta with an objective for results, so I am satisfied, however I would like to have more wind to test my planning conditions,” he said.

Bontemps has excelled in the light medium wind experienced so far in the event, with a stream of second places and a third as worse result!

2008 Olympic Bronze medallist Shahar Zubari took two bullets to climb from 6th to second at only one point behind Bontemps.

In the women's division, Maayan Davidovich (ISR) is conserving her lead, despite a 13th she is discarding. ISAF World Cup leader and winner in Palma, Blanca Manchon has gained two places and is now in second position overall.

ISAF Sailing World Cup leaders, Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl (USA) started the third day of racing in Hyères leading the 470 Men but after scoring a 6th and a 12th today have dropped to third.

“We are quiet excited about the ideas of the ISAF Sailing World Cup, it is a great concept and we are trying to do well in all of them.”says Biehl. The American pair has raced in all four ISAF Sailing World Cup events so far. “Unfortunately I need to have some surgery and will be out of action. I hope that Stuart can keep scoring points with the new crew. We are aiming to be racing again together in August for the Worlds and in Weymouth for the last SWC event.”

The US Sailing Team Alphagraphics 470 sailors reflected on their racing debut in Hyères: “There are many good teams here and with a good race, anyone has a chance to come back to the score. The conditions are challenging so we will see!” With the Americans scoring their first result outside the top 10 today Biehl said: “We had very average starts and didn’t choose the best side, so that doesn’t help!”

Race winners today in the 470 Men's class included Italian Team of Zandona/Mancinelli ITA, who climb from sixth to second overall after a second and a first. Spanish Olympic representatives and Rolex Miami OCR winners Onan Barreiros and Aaron Sarmiento (ESP) won the last race and now are ninth. Matias Buhler and Felix Steiger (SUI) are back in the lead after consistent racing posting a 5th and a 7th today.

Princesa Sofia Mapfre Trophy winners, Austrian sailors Sylvia Vogl and Carolina Flatscher are the new leaders in the 470 Women class after winning the first race by an impressive margin and sailing to 4th in the second.

“We were very upset after yesterday’s racing," said Vogl. "We sailed the last race in very shifty conditions. We were in the front group but the wind made a huge shift and we ended up the race in 24th place! So today, we were very fired up and started the race in an attacking mood!”

Early leader Henriette Koch and Lene Sommer (DEN) had a difficult day with a 18th and a 19th. They have dropped back to second:

“Of course we are a little disappointed with today’s results," said Koch. "We knew yesterday, that we had got an extremely good start, but we were still less than halfway through the regatta, and a lot could happen. We still have four races ahead and the medal race, and as we saw today, a lot of things can happen quite quickly.”

The Dutch teams of Fokkema/Jongens and Mulder/Witteven are third and fourth respectively.

"We have started sailing together about a month ago,” explains Witteven, who won silver in the Beijing Olympics with Mandy Mulder in the Yngling. “We are very much enjoying ourselves at the moment. This feels really good. We both realised how much we missed racing. We are improving every day and the speed is good. We actually get the chance to get our heads out of the boat once in a while. And that helps a lot especially here in Hyeres in these light conditions. We hope for some more wind so we can see how we would handle those conditions.”

Damien Seguin is back in the lead in the 2.4mR with a first and a second today. But Skandia Team GBR's Helena Lucas is only three points behind but finished the day with a victory. Commenting on the first two days Lucas said: “The racing is tricky, with the light wind we had during the first two days it was important to stay with the pressure, and for that you need to be able to look out of the boat for the shifts. That’s pretty hard in the 2.4mR because we are so low in the boat! My coach has designed and built what I call a 'carbon tea tray', it does help to lift me more above sea level. I am very happy that the 2.4 are part of the Sailing World Cup. It did encourage two more events to include us with the Olympic classes. It is a pity that the Sonar and Skudd are not more motivated to come to these regattas, hopefully we will encourage them to participate.”

After winning convincingly the Princesa Sofia Mapfre Trophy in Palma, Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello (ITA) are protecting their lead in the 49er fleet with two seconds and a third. They are 15 points ahead of Rolex Miami OCR winners, the Austrians Delle Karth/Resch, and 17 from European champions, the Alonso brothers from Spain.

In the Laser, Paul Goodison remains in the top position. He and fourth placed Maxim Semerkhanov (RUS) won the races in their class today.

“Some days it just all falls into place,” explained Goodison. “You’re going fast and making good decisions. The hardest thing for me is that I’ve been sailing in pretty windy conditions back home as it can be quite hard to motivate yourself to go sailing when it’s light, so I was a bit concerned about how well I’d do in the light winds against the other guys.”

Goodison has only raced in two domestic Laser events so far this year, so was relaxed about his international comeback.

“The aim for Hyeres was just to do the best that I could after the break, and to get some racing practice in to get ready for the Worlds and Europeans,” he explained.

Luka Radelic and Tonci Stipanovic (CRO) are on equal points on second and third places in the Laser. Tomorrow the top 47 boats will move up to the Gold fleet.

Only one race was sailed in the Laser Radial and this was won by the US' Anna Tunnicliffe moving her from fourth to second overall. The sixth race was abandoned and has been rescheduled for Wednesday.

Sharing the same course as the Radials, the Finns managed to get two races in. Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) has increased his lead having posted a series of top five results. Today's races went to Skandia Team GBR's Giles Scott who won his first major event last week in Palma and Ed Wright, leader of the Finns in the ISAF Sailing World Cup. They place 3rd and 5th overall.

Three races were sailed in the Star fleet and two wins give a slight advantage to French double World Champion Xavier Rohart now sailing with Pierre-Alexis Ponsot.

“The racing area is complicated and racing in a small fleet doesn’t forgive any mistakes," said Rohart. "There is not much difference between everyone’s boat speed.” Of his new crew, he adds: “Everything is working fine. We have a good communication and we start to see the result of it now.”

The new Australian team of Paul McKenzie and Philip Toth, won their first race in the Star having spent less than three weeks in the boat “We sailed well with good speed and tactics. This is the first race we managed to put all the pieces together.”

The classes will start to race the final stage on Wednesday in Gold, Silver and Bronze fleets.

Robert Deaves reports on the Finns:

The British Finn sailors were on a mid-regatta charge on day three of the Semaine Olympique Française in Hyeres. The weather was still being difficult with yet another postponement ashore to wait for the wind, and the first race didn't start until 14.00, but the results that followed further added to the mixed bag that Hyeres has produced so far with races wins for Ed Wright (GBR) and Giles Scott (GBR).

Currently leading the ISAF Sailing World Cup for Finns, Wright put his miserable Monday behind him to come right back into this series with a win in race five and then a third in race six to climb to fifth overall at the mid-way stage. Meanwhile Scott posted a fifth in the first race of the day and followed that up with a win in race six to move up to third overall.
Both sailors have now discarded a high score so will be looking to consolidate on their positions over the next two days.

However Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) maintained his overnight lead and has extended his lead to nine points over Gasper Vincec (SLO) in second.
Kljakovic Gaspic picked up a second and a fifth today, while Vincec faltered slightly with a sixth and a seventh. This was his worst day so far, but in these conditions it could still be considered a pretty good day's work.

Eduard Skornyakov (RUS) is showing his best form since his only major result in the class, winning the European Championship back in 2007. Today he posted a third and a 13th, to climb to back up to sixth overall, while Marin Misura (CRO) drops one places after an eighth and a fourth. Bryan Boyd (USA) also reproduced some of the form that left him in 11th place in Palma with a second place in race six.

Four more races are scheduled before Friday's medal race, and with the way things have gone so far, there is still everything to play for in this 41st Hyeres Sailing Week.

Full Results: RS:X Men, RS:X Women, Laser, Laser Radial, Finn, 49er, 470M, 470W, Star, 2.4m

Top three results and Brit positions:

470 Men (after 6 races)
1. Matias Buhler-Felix Steiger, SUI (16pts)
2. Gabrio Zandona-Edoardo Macinelli, ITA (17pts)
3. Stuart McNay-Graham Biehl, USA (20pts)
Selected GBR
6. Nic Asher-Elliot Willis (27pts)
16. Jonny Moss-Ben Muskett (57pts)

Star (after 9 races)
1. Xavier Rohart-Pierre Alex Ponsot, FRA (11pts)
2. Andrew Macdonald-Brian Faith, USA (16pts)
3. Aimilios Papathanasi-Apostolos Karnoutsos, GRE (16pts)
GBR
4. John Gimson-Ed Greig, GBR (22pts)

2.4mR (after 6 races)
1. Damien Seguin, FRA (12pts)
2. Helena Lucas, GBR (12pts)
3. Paul Tingley, CAN (17pts)

470 Women (after 6 races)
1. Sylvia Vogl-Caroline Flatscher, AUT (22pts)
2. Henriette Koch-Lene Sommer, DEN (25pts)
3. Margriet Fokkema-Marieke Jongens, NED (28pts)
GBR
11. Hannah Mills-Katrina Hughes (48pts)
16. Penny Clark-Saskia Clark (68pts)
17. Sophie Weguelin-Sophie Ainsworth (72pts)

49er (after 9 races)
1. Pietro Sibello-Gianfranco Sibello, ITA (19pts)
2. Nico Delle Karth-Nikolaus Resch, AUT (34pts)
3. Federico Alonso-Artuto Alonso (36pts)
Selected GBR
5. Stevie Morrison-Ben Rhodes (42pts)
7. Chris Draper-Peter Greenhalgh (44pts)
11. Andrew Walsh-Simon Marks (54pts)
12. Dylan Fletcher-Alain Sign (57pts)
13. Paul Campbell-James-Mark Asquith (57pts)

RS:X Men (after 5 races)
1. Julien Bontemps, FRA (8pts)
2. Shahar Zubari, ISR (9pts)
3. Piotr Myszka, POL (10pts)
Selected GBR
4. Nick Dempsey, GBR (15pts)

RS:X Women (after 5 races)
1. Maavan Davidovich, ISR (8pts)
2. Blanca Manchon, ESP (14pts)
3. Flavia Tartaglini, (16pts)
GBR
6. Bryony Shaw, (24pts)

Finn (after 6 races)
1. Ivan Kljakovic, CRO (9pts)
2. Gasper Vincec, SLO (14pts)
3. Giles Scott, GBR (22pts)
Selected GBR
5. Ed Wright (25pts)
10. Andrew Mills (70pts)

Laser Radial (after 5 races)
1. Veronika Fenclova, CZE (6pts)
2. Anna Tunnicliffe, USA (21pts)
3. Susana Romero, ESP (26pts)
Selected GBR
19. Alison Young (65pts)
20. Andrea Brewster, (69pts)

Laser (after 6 races)
1. Paul Goodison, GBR (11pts)
2. Luka Radelic, CRO (20pts)
3. Tonci Stipanovic, CRO (20pts)
Selected GBR
8. Nick Thompson (30pts)