Andy Maloney opens the 2015 Rio Test Event for New Zealand

Andy Maloney opens the 2015 Rio Test Event for New Zealand

Racing is underway at 2015 Rio Test Event, the highly anticipated Olympic dress rehearsal regatta being sailed over eight days in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

With staggered start dates for the different events spread across two days, Andy Maloney, New Zealand’s Laser representative, was the only kiwi to go racing today and he has made a solid start to the regatta.

The 38 boat fleet sailed two races in light and challenging conditions on the Ponte Course and Maloney placed 11th in the opener, then 6th in the second, to lie 6th overall at the end of day one. Only two sailors returned two single-digit results today and Maloney can be pleased to come away from day one within the top six of the fleet.

Maloney says, “Our first race was pretty light breeze – 5-6 knots and very shifty, very patchy and it was pretty hard to read.”

“I had a good first beat and then the second beat there was big differences in pressure from the different sides of the course so I lost quite a few boats, but it was still an okay result.”

“The second race the breeze had filled in a bit, but again it was about playing the shifts and keeping your head out of the boat looking for the pressure and I had a decent race, so it was good.”

On day two the Laser fleet will be on the Niteroi course outside the entrance of Rio’s Guanabara Bay.

Tomorrow sees the start of racing in the Finn (Ponte course), Men’s and Women’s 470 (Pai course), 49er and 49erFX (Escola Naval course) and Nacra 17 (Copacabana course) classes, and the entire NZL Sailing Team contingent will be on water.

After their recent history Men’s 49er crew Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are the crew to beat in the skiff class. They’re the last fleet to get underway with a scheduled start time of 3:30pm on the central Guanabara Bay course known as Escola Naval and, if conditions allow, they will sail three races of around 30 minutes each.

“We’re at 3:30 in the afternoon so it’s a pretty late start given conditions in Rio, it normally gets dark around 5:30pm,” says Blair Tuke. “It’s going to be a cruisy morning for us and hopefully we get a few races away in the afternoon. We’re really looking forward to getting out there and getting stuck in.”

The forecast is for similar conditions again tomorrow and Tuke says they’re anticipating between 8 and 13 knots normal bay sea breeze on their course area.

“We just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings check the forecast in the morning and reassess again in the afternoon. It’s always different out there and we’ll just see what the day brings and do the best we can in those conditions.”

Given the late start Burling and Tuke plan to take it easy in the morning; “We’ll probably sleep in,” says Burling. “We practiced getting up late today, normally we’d be down at the venue around midday, buttomorrow we’ll come down about 2 o’clock. We’ve got a few free hours in the morning, so we’ll rest and use the time… it’s going to be a long week.”

The Olympic format means only one boat per qualifies nation and the 49er class is restricted to 20 boats.

“It changes the racing a bit, but we’ll go into racing with the same approach trying to do the little things well, get off the line and get the first shift and just all those little things that get you around the track quickly,” says Burling.

The remainder of the NZL Sailing Team, including reigning Olympic champions in the Women’s 470 crew Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, will starts racing at around 1 o’clock tomorrow.

2015 Rio Test Event, Rio de Janeiro

The NZL Sailing Team current standings

6thAndy Maloney – Laser (11, 6)

Starting tomorrow…

Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie - Women’s 470 (Women’s double-handed dinghy)
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke - 49er (Men’s skiff)
Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech - 49erFX (Women’s skiff)
Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox - Men’s 470 (Men’s double-handed dinghy)
Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders - Nacra 17 (Mixed multihull)
Josh Junior - Finn (Men’s heavy-weight dinghy)

How to follow

NZL Sailing Team daily media releases – sign up here
Yachting New Zealand website news for daily media releases
NZL Sailing Team Facebook for updates and images
Rio Test Event Regatta website for news and results
Course Area information

ENDS

© Scoop Media