SAILING: Australia’s sailors have revelled in the tough conditions on Guanabara Bay today. On some courses the Aussies were dealing with 20+ knots and massive swells, while on other courses the shifty conditions tested our sailors’ skills as the wind came and went.
This was the case for Nacra 17 team of Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin, who experienced shifty conditions, sometimes heavy, sometimes light. However, the Aussies enjoyed the challenge recording two wins, a fourth and a fifth in today’s four races. This puts the Aussies in the lead after six races, on equal points with the British team. The Nacras are scheduled to complete a 12 race preliminary series, so they are at the half way point.
“We saw big wind changes and big shifts today,” said Darmanin. “We sailed really well. We executed what we wanted to execute, so we’re really happy with how we sailed and the results showed, so that was great!”
“We’ve spent a lot of time in Rio and we haven’t seen these conditions before. We’re a little bit in our element here with the shifty, gusty conditions. We just thrive off it. We love a challenge. We’ve sailed together for so long that when things come up I know exactly what Jas wants even if we don’t have the time to communicate it.”
The Nacras have a rest day tomorrow and are scheduled to race another three races on Saturday (Rio time).
It was also a great day for the Aussie 470 Men’s pairing of Mat Belcher and Will Ryan. The Aussie men are currently lying second overall after crossing the finish line in third place in both of today’s races. They are only three points behind the team from Croatia.
“We had some massive waves with three to three and a half metres,” Belcher said as they came off the water. “There was a lot of breeze at times, and some quite big shifts. Sometimes we were just really trying to hang on, get around the course. Other times really surfing the waves, so it was a good day.”
Finn sailor Jake Lilley also had a strong day on the water. Lilley posted a fourth and a sixth in today’s two races and is currently seventh overall. The scoring in the Finn fleet is extremely tight, with only six points between Lilley in seventh and the Hungarian sailor in third.
“We had a lot of waves and wind,” said Lilley. “It was a hard, physical grind today! My starts were quite good and I was racing consistently so I’ll just keep chipping away.”
Meanwhile Australia’s 470 Women, Carrie Smith and Jaime Ryan had a tough day, posting an 11th in the first race today, but a capsize in the second race saw them finish in 17th place.
“We were doing really well in the second one and then I think the waves got the better of us,” said Ryan. “We had a bit of a capsize on the first downwind and unfortunately although we got the boat up pretty quickly, the kite got itself in a nice tangle. That really made the rest of the race a bit hard for us.
“It was pretty disappointing to come away from that but I guess we were happy with how we were sailing to that point. So we’ll try and take the positives and there’s still a lot of racing left.”
Racing continues tomorrow in the Laser, Laser Radial, 470 Men and 470 Women in addition to the 49er class who will start their Olympic regatta from 1pm tomorrow Rio time (2am Saturday 13 August AEST).
Megan McKay
olympics.com.au
