Nacra pair have their sights on good Genoa result

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders feel like they have done enough sightseeing in Genoa and finally got to stretch the legs on a boat for a change on day four of the Hempel World Cup Series regatta.

They still completed only one race but their third, combined with the drop for their worst score kicking in, propelled them from 40th to second in the Nacra 17 fleet.

Genoa enjoyed winds of 5-7 knots on day four, which was a relative gale compared to what has hit the regatta so far. It has made life difficult for sailors and race management alike and some fleets, including the men's and women's 470 and Laser Radial, have still completed only one race so far.

The prospect for racing looks more encouraging for day five and a number of New Zealand crews will look to take advantage.

The four Kiwi 49er crews have all qualified for gold fleet, with Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie the best placed in seventh.

The pair didn't have the best of days, with a 17th and 29th in their two races, but Peter Burling and Blair Tuke banked a couple of good results in a third and fourth to sit 10th overall and Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn won the first race of the day.

"It was another tricky day today," Burling said. "We were in blue fleet, so got two races away, which gets us through to the finals day tomorrow.

"We ended up with two low scores, which was pretty nice moving into gold fleet. We will just try to keep doing the same. It looks like it's going to be a little bit different tomorrow, possibly sailing in the offshore."

Jones and Saunders have proved themselves to be adept at sailing in light conditions so far in Europe this season. They were fifth at the recent Princess Sofia regatta in Palma and have posted two low scores on top of their start line disqualification this week.

Saunders said they were just pleased to be racing after so many delays to the regatta.

"It was our fourth day today and we have managed to do only three races in total so it has been pretty frustrating," he said. "It's meant a lot of visiting all the sites in Genoa and eating a lot of pasta in the boat park.

"Today was actually quite good. We got out there quite late and had one race in about 6-7 knots but then the wind died and we couldn't do another race, unfortunately.

"We have sailed pretty well. We are stoked with our starts and speed and just looking forward to hopefully not waiting around too much and actually getting four races in tomorrow. That's the idea, anyway."

There's a lot of catching up to do in the men's and women's 470 and Laser Radial but the 49erFX have completed five races and will move into gold fleet tonight (NZ time).

Alex Maloney and Molly Meech are 15th overall but the pack is quite bunched and they are only 10 points off third. There is bound to be plenty of chopping and changing once gold fleet racing starts with most teams sitting on a big score among their results.

Results and standings after day 4 of the Hempel World Cup Series regatta in Genoa overnight (NZ time):

Nacra 17 (45 boats)

1st: Ben Saxton / Nicola Boniface (GBR) 1 1 (2) - 2 points
2nd: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) (24 UFD) 1 3 - 4 pts
3rd: Iker Martinez / Olga Maslivets (ESP) (4) 4 1 - 5 pts

49er (65 boats)

1st: Sime Fantela / Mihovil Fantela (CRO) (34 UFD) 1 1 11 1 - 14 pts
2nd: Diego Botin le Chever / Iago Lopez Marra (ESP) 5 (20) 6 5 1 - 17 pts
3rd: David Gilmour / Lachy Gilmour (AUS) 2 7 2 8 (12) - 19 pts

7th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 1 2 8 17 (29) - 28 pts
10th: Peter Burling / Blair Tuke (NZL) 14 (15) 10 3 4 - 31 pts
17th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) (34 UFD) 23 6 1 8 - 38 pts
30th: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) (19) 4 14 19 14 - 52 pts

49erFX (50 boats)

1st: Odile van Aanholt / Marieke Jongens (NED) 5 (11) 1 1 1 - 8 pts
2nd: Klara Wester / Rebecca Netzler (SWE) (19) 2 4 2 3 - 11 pts
3rd: Julia Gross / Hanna Klinga (SWE) 3 1 (9) 5 8 - 17 pts

15th: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech 3 (15) 13 3 8 - 27 pts

Men's 470 (44 boats)

1st: Nikolaus Kampelmuhler / Thomas Czajka (AUT) 1 - 1 pt
2nd: Naoki Ichino / Takashi Hasegawa (JPN) 2 - 2 pts
3rd: Panagiotis Mantis / Pavlos Kagialis (GRE) 3 - 3 pts

18th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) 18 - 18 pts

Women's 470 (35 boats)

1st: Gil Cohen / Noa Lasry (ISR) 1 - 1 pt
2nd: Fernanda Oliveira / Ana Luiza Barbachan (BRA) 2 - 2 pts
3rd: Amy Seabright / Anna Carpenter 3 - 3 pts

27th: Susannah Pyatt / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) 27 - 27 pts

Laser Radial (67 boats)

1st=: Line Flem Host (NOR) 1 - 1 pt
1st=: Maud Jayet (SUI) 1 - 1 pt
3rd=: Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) 2 - 2 pts
3rd=: Vasileia Karachaliou (GRE) 2 -2 pts

17th=: Olivia Christie (NZL) 9 - 9 pts
59th=: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (NZL) 30 - 30 pts

Full results here

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