French Olympic Sailing Week – Aleh and Powrie open well

After a second day of light winds in Hyeres, France all fleets with kiwi representatives now have racing underway at 2010 French Olympic Sailing Week.

The best placed of the twelve New Zealand entries are currently Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie in the Women’s 470 event. In their opening race of the series the pair crossed the finish in second place behind Israel’s Cohen and Mamriav, and with just one race completed the kiwis have second place overall at this early stage.

Andrew Murdoch is in 10th place in the Lasers. The split fleet which boasts a huge 94 entries in total, added just one race to the scorecard overnight in the light conditions. Murdoch was fourth which sees him move up the standings from 15th into tenth.

Josh Junior’s stellar start in the opening race was followed up with a 27th in last night’s race, and the young Wellingtonian now sits 23rd in the standings.

Sara Winther made a decent start in the Laser Radial event kicking things off with a fourth place in race one. She went on to record a 13th in the second race and holds 13th overall in the 80 boat fleet.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders are in the Men’s 470 line-up, and they sum up their frustrations on day two of French Olympic Sailing Week so far beset by light fluky winds.

“There was little wind for the first race, we had good speed but just couldn't recover after missing a big right shift moments after the start,” comments the pair. “Our start was front row and we maintained our lane, this is a big improvement in comparison to our starts in Marseilles.”

Over in the Women’s Match Race event Samantha Osborne, Raynor Smeal and Jenna Hansen didn’t hit the water on day two with Group C – their round robin group – held off the water while Group’s A and B completed their round robin racing.

“The conditions were similar to yesterday with the breeze not filling in till just after lunch. Group A and B finished their round robin and there were quite a few upsets,” says Osborne and crew.

“Group C jumped into the boats at around 6pm, but unfortunately the breeze died and we were unable to race. This means we are first up tomorrow. We ready and amped... bring it on!”

Rising to the top in Group A was Tunnicliffe and crew (USA) and in Group B, Le Berre and crew (FRA) were top qualifier.

Racing continues tomorrow in France, with the regatta concluding on Friday 30th April.

The New Zealand team is supported by coaches Laurie Jury and Mark Howard.

Further updates on the New Zealand team will be issued as racing continues, and full results and news are available on the regatta website.

2010 French Olympic Sailing Week
New Zealand’s Current Standings

Women’s Match Racing (22 entries)
Samantha Osborne, Raynor Smeal and Jenna Hansen (3 wins/1 loss)

Laser (94 entries)
10th Andrew Murdoch (8, 4)
23rd Josh Junior (1, 27)
44th Andy Maloney (18, 19)
47th Max Andrews (36, 4)
51st Mike Bullot (7, 36)
74th Sam Meech (24, 26)

Laser Radial (80 entries)
13th - Sara Winther – (4, 13)

470 Men (90 entries)
77th Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders – (38, 32)

470 Women (44 entries)
2nd Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie – (2)

RS:X Women (39 entries)
15th Jazmine Lynch – (10, 23)

Finn (52 entries)
Matt Coutts – (BFD)