Issue date
Tim Dempsey and Jan Apel sailing together in the SKUD 18 class found their groove on day two of the Paralympic Sailing Competition in Weymouth, lifting up their overall standing by three places.
“Today was far more successful than yesterday, we had a good strong plan and stuck to it” said Jan Apel, SKUD 18 crew “and it worked a treat.”
Again, Weymouth and Portland turned on some fantastic sailing weather of 10-12 knots wind speed, and with this a fifth and seventh place finish were added to the Kiwi SKUD 18 Team's scorecard.
“I think they had a bit more room to move around the course today. They could tack away and find clear air and that was more important than finding the shifts today” said their coach Rob Hielkema.
The sailing on day two was a completely different game: “The breeze direction was really steady today. It was almost a carbon copy of yesterday in terms of strength, but the constant direction forced a change in strategy on the course. Yesterday was really shifty.”
Sailing in the competitive 2.4mR class, Paul Francis is “battling to come to grips with the very tight racing” he said. A 14th and 12th place finish in Sunday’s two races have dropped him back to 14th overall, but the points in this fleet are very close and with seven races left, anything is possible.
In any given race of the 2.4mR fleet, the difference between first and last place race finishers is a matter of seconds, so every manoeuvre counts.
“I’m still really happy because I haven’t hit any other boats yet, and I have been docking the boat really well” Paul said light-heartedly after racing, always looking at the positive.
Four of eleven races have now been completed, and both fleets will sail another two races tomorrow starting from 10:00pm NZT (11:00am local time).
Day 2: Current Standings
7th – Tim Dempsey and Jan Apel (SKUD 18) - 9, 9, 5, 7
14th - Paul Francis (2.4mR) 14, 10, 14, 12
-Ends –
Header photo of Paul Francis by IFDS
Download images for editorial use with credit to IFDS.
Where to get ongoing information on this event...
Websites:
- Official London 2012 Paralympic Sailing Website (Official News, Results, and Schedule)
- New Zealand Paralympic Team (Daily news and updates from all of NZ’s paralympic Teams, including sailing.)
- Yachting New Zealand (Yachting New Zealand will be posting a brief daily summary news item and schedule for the next day via a media release)
Social Media:
For more information please contact
Kristine Lederis
021 871 301
