Bundock and Ashby class act

The Tornado Asia Pacific Regatta is being convincingly lead by the Australian pairing

Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby (AUS) posted another win and a third place to increase their lead by an incredible nine point margin on only the second day of the Tornado Asia Pacific Regatta being hosted by Somers Yacht Club on Westernport Bay.

Only Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis (NED) can claim beating the Australia pair, which they did in race three of the series today, to be currently placed second overall in the series.

The British crew of Leigh McMillan and Will Howden (GBR) moved into third place overall, obviously in their element in the stronger southerly winds which peaked at around 23 knots this afternoon.

In an unusual situation, the top three placed top three in both races today, just in a different order! “In both races the lead was shared between us, Mitch and Leigh. The three of us battled it out for the top three places in both races,” Bundock said.

Bundock went on to say: “The Spanish (world champs Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz) pushed us hard in the first race, but we managed to push them out of third place and into fourth.”

Things got exciting in race four, when the Aussie duo only beat Booth and Nieuwenhuis over the line by a metre, such was the competition today.

“It was shifty and patchy, which is unusual for stronger winds. At one stage I said to Glenn ‘let’s get out of here’, because the racing was so close we couldn’t afford to take chances,” Bundock said.

Bad luck for the lone female skipper Carolijn Brouwer and her crew Seb Godefroid (BEL) today. The two enjoy the heavier conditions and were looking forward to both races.

“We were going really well in the first race, we rolled the Aussies and were up with Mitch Booth who was in second place, when our jib track broke, so we had to pull out and go back to the beach and fix it, which we did.

“We got back out for the second race, had great speed, but we overlaid a couple of marks, which cost us dearly. We finished seventh, so we will try harder tomorrow,” Brouwer said.

Brouwer also commented: “This is the best sailing I have had for a while. I’ve been to sailing events around the world for years, but I am really enjoying the racing, the venue and particularly the hospitality that Somers Yacht Club has given us. They are so friendly and helpful. It’s a pretty special place with very special people.”

Racing at the Sail Melbourne event resumes tomorrow with two further races starting from 2.30pm.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Nationality	R1	R2	R3	R4	Tot
1	Darren Bundock	Glenn Ashby	AUS	1	1	3	1	6
2	Mitch Booth	Pim Nieuwenhuis	ESP	2	10	1	2	15
3	Leigh Mc Millan	Will Howden	GBR	10	7	2	3	22
4	Andrey Kirilyuk	Valeriy Ushkov	RUS	4	4	5	10	23
5	Tino Mittelmeier	Niko Mittelmeier	GER	3	2	9	11	25
6	Fernando Echavarri	Anton Paz	ESP	11	5	4	5	25
7	Roland Gaebler	Gunnar Struckmann	DEN	6	6	7	13	32
8	Andrew Walsh	Edward Barney	GBR	9	12	6	9	36
9	Oskar Johansson	Kevin Stittle	CAN	7	15	12	4	38
10	Allan Norregaard	Michael Risoer	DEN	18	8	15	6	47
11	John Gimson	Stuart Bithell	GBR	14	11	11	14	50
12	Enrique Figueroa	Jorge Hernandez	PUR	17	13	10	12	52
13	Tom Phipps	Marcus Lynch	GBR	5	19	14	16	54
14	Carolijn Brouwer	Sebbe Godefroid	BEL	12	3	33.00F	7	55
15	Iordanis Paschalidis	Konstantine Trigkoni	GRE	8	33.00O	8	8	57
16	Sergey Dzhienbaev	Maxim Semenov	RUS	20	9	13	15	57
17	Bruno Di Bernardi	Mario Tinoco	BRA	15	14	16	20	65
18	Rohan Langworthy	Jack Punch	AUS	22	17	17	17	73
19	Damien Ford	Mark Edmonds	AUS	13	20	19	23	75
20	Brett Burvill	Ryan Duffield	AUS	16	21	21	19	77
21	Robbie Lovig	Stuart Offer	AUS	25	22	18	18	83
22	Allan Gamble	Kim Nicholas	AUS	19	25	23	22	89
23	Kevin Kay	David Hart	AUS	23	16	20	33.00F	92
24	Michael Vandenberg	Ben Carroll	AUS	27	18	33.00F	21	99
25	Paul Peterson	Matt Thackray	AUS	24	24	22	33.00F	103
26	Ron Stokes	Alexander Bertrand	AUS	21	27	33.00F	33.00C	114
27	Andrew Griffin	Chris Tucker	AUS	26	23	33.00F	33.00C	115
28	Andrew Heaney	Lukas Muir	AUS	28	26	33.00C	33.00C	120
29	Gwyn Cracknell	Peter Togno	AUS	29	28	33.00C	33.00C	123
30	Ian Simpson	Gary Sawyer	AUS	30	29	33.00C	33.00C	125
31	Martin Dunlop	Dana Rathova	AUS	33.00C	33.00C	33.00C	33.00C	132
31	Paul Raymond	Nicholas Raymond	AUS	33.00C	33.00C	33.00F	33.00C	132