With four out of the six classes now ashore after two races today in Madeira, it is the southern hemisphere, and in particular the Australian Sailing Team who are emerging as a force to be reckoned with at the ISAF Youth Sailing World Champsionship.

Now leading in three out of the four dinghy classes, they are proving masters of the moderate conditions, but finding the lighter stuff is more challenging. Australian sailors now lead both double-handed fleets, the single-handed boys, and Krystal Wier, leading going into today, has dropped to third.

In conditions across the board that dropped to around 3 knots in the lulls, with huge shifts on every course, racing was tight and tough, with huge position changes in every fleet and scorelines that reflect the tough competition, with even the best dropping races into the discard pile.

In the 420 Boys fleet Nathan Outteridge and Ayden Menzie’s lead is now ten points as they scored a third and an 11th place in the two races today. The girls on the other hand had a tougher time, with Elise Rechichi and Rayshele Martin scoring a seventh and a 20th position.

Although both pairs recorded a discardable result today, they still lead in both fleets and when asked about whether or not they were celebrating, AYF scholarship coach Martin Watson, who looks after the 420s remarked. No we’re not celebrating, the regatta’s way to tight for that. We have to focus on maintaining top performances for the rest of the regatta.”

He went on to say, “Madeira is very beautiful and a great place to sail, but it’s also a challenging place to sail, and when you bring the best youth sailors in the world to race with the backdrop that Madeira gives, it’s just a great championship.”