Opening day of the Nacra 17, 49er and 49er FX Oceania Championship in Australia saw only the men’s 49er complete any racing.
“It was the hottest wind I’ve ever felt,” said Lester Noble of Ovington Boats, down to support the fleet. “Like a hand drier turned to the max and running full speed.”
The two 49er flights completed their first races, then only one flight managed a second race, so no meaningful overall results are yet available.
The women’s 49erFX and the mixed crew Nacra17 failed to to leave the shore.
Michael Hansen and Mathias Sletten of Denmark are nominal 49er leaders with a 1, 3, scoreline, ahead of Australia’s David and Lachy Gilmour with a 1, 5 score. Third are Leo Takahashi and Ibuki Koizumi of Japan.
The 2019 World Champions, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke of New Zealand were in the flight completing two races and their 5, 3 scoreline places them fourth overall.
Other flight race winners were Spain’s Diego Botin and Lpoez Marra with an 8 and 1, and Ben Bildstein and David Hussl of Austria with 12 and 1.
The black flag took its toll in the first flight races, removing Britain’s Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell, and Jack Hawkins and Chris Thomas, as well as the German pair Jakob Meggendorfer and Andreas Spanger.
49er Oceania Championship – Leading results (75 entries)
1st POL 10 Lukasz PRZYBYTEK and Paweł KOŁODZIŃSKI 1 0 – – 1 pts
2nd IRL 11 Ryan SEATON and Séafra GUILFOYLE 2 0 – – 2 pts
3rd FRA 44 Kévin FISCHER and Yann JAUVIN 3 0 – – 3 pts
4th DEN 511 Michael HANSEN and Mathias SLETTEN 1 3 – – 4 pts
5th GER 3 Tim FISCHER and Fabian GRAF 4 0 – – 4 pts
6th EST 321 Juuso ROIHU and Henri ROIHU 5 0 – – 5 pts
7th AUS 91 David GILMOUR and Lachy GILMOUR 1 5 – – 6 pts
8th NZL 5 Logan BECK and Oscar GUNN 6 0 – – 6 pts
9th JPN 26 Leo TAKAHASHI and Ibuki KOIZUMI 2 5 – – 7 pts
10th OMA 145 Musab AL HADI and Waleed AL KINDI 7 0 – – 7 pts