Issue date
British crews were the big movers on day three of the 21st Lexus Flying Fifteen world championship in Napier yesterday but the Australian pairing of Matthew Owen and Andrew Reed hold a seven-point lead at the top of the fleet.
(Matthew Owen and Andrew Reed in action)
Owen and Reed, who hail from Canberra, are the only crew to have posted single-digit scores in the four races so far and have done it by continually digging themselves out of difficult positions when buried in the pack. They lead the regatta by seven points from Steve Goacher and Tim Harper who are chasing their fourth world championship win and three British crews are in the top four overall.
Goacher and Harper won yesterday's only race, which was sailed in 6-10 knots. There were two general recalls due to persistent wind shifts but the fleet of 57 completed the two-lap course of one windward/leeward lap followed by a triangle and beat to the finish at the third attempt.
Goacher and Harper worked their way to the front of the pack and then covered their rivals to win the race, their second win of the regatta.
Charles Apthorp and Alan Green (GBR/IRE) were second, ahead of Peter Milne and Trevor Williams (AUS). Hayden Percy and Scott Pedersen were the best placed of the Kiwis, finishing in fifth, and they are also fifth overall.
“We actually ended up with three really good starts today if you include the two general recalls, so we were pretty good off the line," Owen said. "We got a great start, turned over and about 50 boats down at the pin end crossed us so we were pretty much back of the fleet 30 seconds in, so we had to chip away quite hard to get back into it. We got a couple of nice shifts at the top but we were on the back foot from the start.
“At the top mark we just did a few different things to the rest of the pack because it is just such a competitive, similar speed fleet and if you do something different to the rest of the pack the gains can be quite massive, but our whole motto is just chip, chip, chip. All through this regatta we have not had a good first work so we have had to come from behind.”
Race 5 is scheduled to start at 1pm today with similar light breezes forecast.
Provisional Results (Top 10 of 57 entries, after 4 races)
1 AUS 3684 Matthew Owen / Andrew Reed - 2,4,7,9 = 22pts
2 GBR 4021 Steve Goacher / Tim Harper - 19,8,1,1 = 29pts
3 GBR 4005 David McKee / Mal Hartland - 7,10,2,10 = 29pts
4 GBR 3760 Jeremy Davy / Martin Huett - 9,5,10,7 = 31pts
5 NZL 3091 Hayden Percy / Scott Pedersen - 1,6,22,5 = 34pts
6 AUS 3986 Nick Jerwood / Janet Jerwood - 5,2,8,20 - 35pts
7 AUS 3859 David Yu / Chris Nelson - 3,1,9,26 = 39pts
8 NZL 3739 Aaron Goodmanson / Alister Rowlands - 18,3,13,17 = 51pts
9 GBR 4030 Greg Wells / Richard Rigg - 4,14,15,24 = 57pts
10 AUS 3855 Peter Rooke / Martin Arrowsmith - 31,12,11,4 = 58
For full results and more information see here
