NZ Match Racing Champs: Day two

Laurie Jury leads by 1 point over fellow kiwi Will Tiller and Italy’s Francisco Bruni after Day Two of the New Zealand Match Racing Championships

After a delayed start due to light airs racing on Day Two of the day the NZ Match Racing Championships began at 3.30pm

As the Day wrapped up four flights were complete in what was a 5-8 knot shifty breeze has become a fantastic evening to go sailing with 18-20 knots S-SW.

Gavin Brady added 3 wins to his total beating Will Tiller by 35 seconds; Laurie Jury beat Scott Dickson by 4 seconds.

Laurie Jury who is currently placed first with 8 wins said “It was great to get a bit more breeze this afternoon. The heavier breeze is better for the heavier crews. It has been great training for the crew so far on a new boat. We are getting better all the time. We have a lot of tough races tomorrow and are hoping for a decent breeze.”

Francesco Bruni and Will Tiller are hard on Jury’s heals with 7 wins have also had a day of top of the table matches. Bruni has watched the Luna Rossa AC72 go out practicing twice today without him and took off immediately following his final match to help his team mates’ put the big cat away.

Tiller meanwhile had the toughest match of the day against Chris Steele, which he won by just one second.

Scott Dickson, who arrived in NZ last month to sail the J120 ‘Simply Red’ in the 2012 Coastal Classic, has brought with him a crew from the USA two of whom are visiting NZ for the first time. They took the opportunity while the AP was up this morning to Visit the Sky Tower. “Today was exciting with some hard fought absolute titanic battles against some of the top sailors in the world. It is a tough score line but we are pleased with how we are sailing. We have an opportunity to win every race and with the calibre of the competition it says volumes for how well the team is working. We are looking forward to continue and improve our consistency and performance. It’s a cliché but one race at a time.” Commented Dickson.

Chris Steele had a new crew member today, former ‘Black Match’ crew member and world match racing tour champion in 2009, Dave Swete. “It’s great to have Dave racing with us” said Steele. “Our crew work is awesome and we had a good race against Rod Davis. It was really tight but with some good shifts and great manoeuvres we won. We are looking forward to tomorrow. Same process and routines. We have some tough matches though against Jury, Wood, Hazard and Middleton and we need to make sure we turn up our game.”

At the other end of the table Mike Bullot and crew are not letting their mistakes today bring them down. “It was a long wait for the racing to begin and when the breeze filled in though we had three good races. We were over at the start which put us out against Sam Osborne. Then against Steele we got the lead but rounded the wrong top mark. In the final match against Davis he goose-winged his sails and came charging through which hurt. Tomorrow we have some big scalps to take.”

The forecast for Day Three of the RNZYS NZ Match Racing Championships is for 14-18 knots in a southerly direction. Racing is scheduled to begin at 10am with Flight Twelve

Results Flight Eight

Bruni beat Piriou 18secs

Brady beat Tiller 35 secs

Osborne beat Bullot 2secs

Jury beat Dickson 4secs

Hazard beat Wood 52secs

Results Flight Nine

Steele beat Davis 12s

Middleton beat Appelgren 10s

Tiller beat Dickson 42s

Bruni beat Brady 18s

Jury beat Piriou 36s

Results Flight Ten

Hazard beat Middleton 1m 33s

Davis beat Appelgren 25s

Wood beat Osborne 42s

Steele Beat Bullot (Bullot DNF)

Bruni beat Dickson 23s

Results Flight Eleven:

Jury beat Middleton 54s

Davis beat Bullot 11s

Appelgren beat Osborne 46

Wood beat Piriou 46s

Tiller beat Steele 1s

Ranking so far