The rain finally cleared over Medemblik, Holland, for the second day of SPA Regatta, and revealed a pleasant day with variable breezes yesterday. The six different courses saw everything from 0-15 knots of wind speed, which made for tricky sailing conditions.

A good day for the RYA team GBR Laser sailors, which saw the Brits finish first, second and third, with Paul Goodison leading, Ed Wright in second and Peter Walker in third, in the first race of the day. Ed Wright continued his good form in the shifty conditions, finishing second behind Goodison in the second race of the day, which turned into a race win as Goodison was penalised for being over the line early. Wright added a fourth place to his successful day’s score line, to see him move up into third place overall, and match five times world champion Robert Scheidt of Brazil on best score of the day.

“I had a really good day today, I was trying to be a bit cautious on the starts as I did not want to be over the line, the conditions were tricky as we had everything from 0-15 knots and the standard of the fleet is very high as all of the top Laser sailors are here.” Commented Wright.

Goodison is currently seeking redress to try and get his position reinstated as he does not believe that he was fairly scored as OCS (on course side) as he was pushed over the line by a another sailor.

In the Star class, team GBR sailor and Olympic Gold Medallist Iain Percy sailing with Steve Mitchell maintained his second position overall after day two. Percy scored a 27th place and then came back to win the second race of the day, to put him two points away from Mark Neeleman/Jos Schrier from Holland in first place. Fellow Olympian and team GBR sailor Ian Barker, sailing with Ed Peel, scored a 14th and an 11th to put him in 13th place overall.

Out on the Women’s Mistral course the sailors battled with inconsistent wind conditions. RYA team GBR sailor Natasha Sturges managed to cope well, scoring a second and a tenth place in the 43-boat fleet to move up one position overall in second place. Team mate Bryony Shaw also had a good day, finishing fourth in the first race and then 12th in the second to put her inside the top ten, in eighth place. In the men’s Mistral fleet, Dom Tidey finished fourth and 22 to put him in seventh place overall.

Natasha Sturges commented on the day, “today was a fairly frustrating day, I was leading the first race by a clear margin, but the breeze came in from behind and pushed the fleet up to me, I did well to finish second. I had a good day overall and am pleased that I have moved up into second place overall.”

With a later start time than some of the other fleets, the Finn class enjoyed good racing in a steady breeze. Olympic Gold Medallist Ben Ainslie went all out in the first race of the day to take the ‘bullet’, which he then followed up with a third place, which has seen him move up onto a podium position, four points behind Emilios Papathanasiou who is currently in first place. Fellow team GBR sailor Andrew Simpson scored a 13th place in the first race, then completed the day with his second race win of the regatta, maintaining his third place overall.

“Today was a better day for me, I am pleased to have won the last race of the day and to have moved up into the top three. I felt quick today, had the right sail up and sailed fairly smart.” Commented Ainslie.

The 49er course today was more a game of snakes and ladders, and places were easily won and lost in the shifty breeze. Despite this, Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks kept level headed and sailed a good day, scoring an eighth and two fourth places to keep them in a podium position. There are currently four British teams in the top ten in this 57-boat fleet. Alister Richardson and Peter Greenhalgh are currently lying seventh overall, Paul Brotherton/Mark Asquith are in eighth place and Stevie Morrison/Ben Rhodes are in tenth place.

“The second day of qualifying has been a mixed day for team GBR. As well as great performances from Natasha Sturges, Paul Goodison, Ed Wright, Andrew Simpson, Ben Ainslie, Chris Draper and Iain Percy, who are all lying in the top three, I am pleased to see that Stevie Morrison is performing well in the 49er fleet. Despite breaking his rudder gantry yesterday, he has finished inside the top ten in all of the other races. Commented RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park, who went on to say, “With another day of qualifying rounds today, with the possibility of another discard coming into play for some fleets and the forecast of strong winds over the next few days, there is a long way to go yet.”

The larger fleets have one more day sailing in groups and then get split into Gold and Silver fleets for the remaining two day of the regatta. The winner of the Gold fleet on Sunday in each class will be the regatta winner.

Results

Yngling (after four races, 1 discard)

1, Melanie Dennison/Fiona Herbert/Caroline Aders, AUS (2,3,(13),3) 8 pts

2, Monica Azon/Diane Cuadras/Julie Garcia, ESP (9,1,2,(15)) 12 pts

3, Annelies Thies/Annemieke Bes/Petronella de Jong, NED (1,(9),3,9) 13 pts

RYA team GBR

16, Shirley Robertson/Sarah Ayton/Inga Leask (18,14,(19),11) 43 pts

17, Lizzie Edwards/Gilly Ansell/Sue Parkin (13,(16),14,16) 43 pts

22, Nicole Johnson/Jane Norris/Jo Line (20,(23),23,20) 63 pts

Star (after four races, 1 discard)

1, Mark Neeleman/Jos Schrier, NED ((13),5,2,3) 10 pts

2, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell, GBR (9,2,(27),1) 12 pts

3, Jose Maria Van Der Ploeg/Domingo Marique, ESP ((22),4,3,7) 14 pts

Other team GBR

22, Ian Barker/Ed Peel (6, (DNF),14,11) 31 pts

470 Men (after six races, 1 discard)

1, Sven Coster/Kalle Coster, NED (1,4,4,3,(12),4) 16 pts

2, Johan Molund/Martin Anderson, SWE (12,1,1,1,5,(OCS)) 20 pts

3, Eugen Braslavets/Igor Matvienko, UKR (1,1,4,(14),23,2) 22 pts

RYA team GBR

5, Graham Vials/Dan Newman (2,8,5,13,8,3) 26 pts

12, Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield (5,6,6,(31),8,7) 32 pts

470 Women (after six races, 1 discard)

1, Nike Kornicke/Vered Buskila, ISR (4,8,4,2,(21),1) 19 pts

2, Lisa Westerhof/Margriet Matthijsse, NED (3,2,7,(12),5,5) 22 pts

3, Ingrid Petitjean/Nadege Douroux, FRA (6,3,2,4,(26),9) 24 pts

RYA team GBR

12, Helena Lucas/Jenny Heeley (9,7,22,(25),6,10) 54 pts

Laser (after six races, 1 discard)

1, Robert Scheidt, BRA ((OCS),1,1,2,4,1) 9 pts

2, Paul Goodison, GBR (2,5,1,1,(OCS),1) 10 pts

3, Ed Wright (3,1,(4),2,1,4) 11 pts

Other GBR

19, James Date (11,13,6,5,(26),11) 46 pts

26, Peter Walker (20,9,14,3,11,(23)) 57 pts

27, Jim Taylor (15,15,3,(35),9,15) 57 pts

51, Mark Howard (21,4,19,(24),31,19) 87 pts

Europe (after six races, 1 discard)

1, Sari Multala, FIN (2,1,1,1,2,(7)) 7 pts

2, Min Dizillie, BEL (1,2,3,1,1,(4)) 8 pts

3, Sarah Macky, NZL (1,1,3,(9),1,5) 11 pts

RYA team GBR

15, Kirsty Bonar (7,(13),6,2,11,5) 31 pts

37, Debbie Winstanley ((OCS),3,6,7,19,12) 47 pts

Mistral Men (after four races,1 discard)

1, Tom Ashley, NZL (1,2,1,(3)) 4 pts

2, Matchoro Tal, ISR ((2),2,2,1) 5 pts

3, Kevin Mevissen, NED (1,4,(6),2) 7 pts

RYA team GBR

7, Dom Tidey (7,1,4,(22)) 12 pts

19, Nick Dempsey (4,5,(28),15) 24 pts

Mistral Women (after four races, 1 discard)

1, Lee Lai Shan, HKG (1,4,1,(8)) 6 pts

2, Natasha Sturges, GBR (3,6,2,(10)) 11 pts

3, Michal Hein, ISR ((16),13,3,2) 16

Other team GBR

8, Bryony Shaw ((14),8,4,12) 24 pts

Tornado (after six races, 1 discard)

1, Mitch Booth/ Herbert Dercksen, NED (1,12,(14),2,1,1) 17 pts

2, Roman Hagara/Hans P. Steinacher, AUT (3,2,(23),12,2,3) 22 pts

3, Fernando Echavarri/Anton Paz, ESP ((OCS),8,2,4,5,6) 25 pts

GBR

10, Hugh Styles/Adam May (5,(19),3,16,17,15) 56 pts

12, Leigh McMillan/Mark Bulkeley (6,(16),16,11,8,16) 57 pts

14, Rob Wilson/Will Howden (13,14,18,9,11,(19)) 65 pts

21, Steven Lovegrove/Martin Sellars (16,15,17,(OCS),13,22) 83 pts

25, Matthew Eeles/Marcus Lynch (28,24,7,18,(32),31) 108 pts

31, James Smith/Tom Saunt (25,(35),32,31,30,29) 147 pts

49er (after six races, 1 discard)

1, Iker Martinez/Xabier Fernandez, ESP (3,4,2,4,1,1) 11 pts

2, Luka Rodion/George Leonchuk, UKR (1,(OCS),1,3,4,2) 11 pts

3, Chris Draper/Simon Hiscocks, GBR (2,2,5,(8),4,4) 17 pts

Other team GBR

7, Alister Richardson/Peter Greenhalgh (4,(14),5,3,2,9) 23 pts

8, Paul Brotherton/Mark Asquith (2,4,7,5,(18),6) 24 pts

Finn (after four races, 1 discard)

1, Emilios Papathanasio, GRE (1,1,2,1) 3 pts

2, Ben Ainslie, GBR (3,5,1,3) 7 pts

3, Andrew Simpson, GBR (6,1,(13),1) 8 pts