Another week, another podium for Burling and Tuke

Another week, another podium for Burling and Tuke

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke had to settle for silver in the 49er skiff class today when a medal race duel went the way of Austrians Nico Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch at Sail Melbourne, the opening regatta in the ISAF Sailing World Cup series for 2010-11.

After a five day qualifying series with some light wind racing and heavy weather interruptions the kiwis went into today’s medal race with a narrow points margin over the Austrians, who are ISAF ranked number one, but still needed to finish one place behind them or better, to secure the gold. But it wasn’t to be when the kiwis came home in ninth place in the medal race to collect the silver medal.

The podium finish is still a terrific result for the young kiwi skiff sailors who won last week’s Sail Sydney Regatta and have finished ahead of some top international talent at Sail Melbourne, including the former world title holder Aussie pair – Outteridge and Jensen – who until last week had an eleven regatta winning streak. This week the Aussies finished fourth, and it was Storck and Moore from the USA who took the bronze medal in the 22-strong fleet.

Among the next best placed of the NZL Sailing Team competing in the Olympic classes was Josh Junior who finished 3rd in today’s medal race and 5th overall in a world class fleet of 66 in the single-handed Laser class. Sara Winther also placed 5th overall, competing in the Women’s Laser Radial fleet.

Sam Meech also lined up in the Laser medal race today, leading around the first two marks but overtaken as the race progressed. The Tauranga Yacht and Powerboat Club sailor finished in 9th place overall.

New Zealand was well represented in the Paralympic classes with two entries in both the SKUD18 and 2.4Metre events. Tim Dempsey and Jan Apel were the best placed of the kiwi Paralympic sailors finishing 4th in the two-handed SKUD18, while Brett Willcock was 6th in the 2.4Metre.
In the non-Olympic events Michael Cate finished 3rd in the Men’s Laser Radial.

The next event in the ISAF Sailing World Cup series is Miami OCR in late January 2011, and many of New Zealand’s Olympic class sailors will be in action on home waters at 2011 Sail Auckland Regatta to be hosted by Takapuna Boating Club between February 3rd and 6th.

2010 Sail Melbourne Regatta
New Zealand’s Final Results
See the regatta website for full results and more

49er (22 boats)
2nd Peter Burling and Blair Tuke
16th Marcus Hansen and Aaron Hume-Merry

Laser (66 boats)
5th Josh Junior
9th Sam Meech

Laser Radial (41 boats)
5th Sara Winther
17th Rachel Basevi
25th Miranda Powrie
31st Cushla Hume-Merry

Finn (23 boats)
10th Dan Slater

Laser Radial Men
3rd Michael Cate
5th Nicholas Croft

RS:X Women (17 sailors)
15th Georgia Schofield

RS:X Men (13 sailors)
9th Ben Mackay
13th Oliver Gunman

RS:X Youth
4th Georgia Schofield
8th Timothy Driver

2.4 Metre (10 boats)
6th Brett Willcock
10th Josh McKenzie-Brown

SKUD18 (7 boats)
4th Tim Dempsey & Jan Apel
7th Annabelle Tye & Vaughan Robertson

About this regatta:
Sail Melbourne is the opening regatta in the ISAF Sailing World Cup series, and the only one of the seven events that make up the series of be staged in the Southern Hemisphere. Running from 12th – 18th December in 2010 the regatta is hosted by the Sandringham Yacht Club, with racing staged on Port Phillip Bay for Olympic and Invited classes.

The ISAF Sailing World Cup - is hosted in seven different countries across the world offering a competitive platform for many of the world’s best sailors and the wider sailing community. These countries are Australia, USA, France, Spain, Holland, Germany and England.

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