RS Feva Nationals: Very close racing at Maraetai on Day 2
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 15 Apr 13:13 NZST
15 April 2024
New Zealand RS Feva Nationals - Day 2 - April 14, 2024 -0 Maraetai Sailing Club © Suellen Hurling
Four races were completed on Day 2 of the 2024 RS Feva NZ Championship sailing from the Maraetai Sailing Club.
There was a change around at the top of the points table of the 47 boat fleet, in the moderate sailing conditions, with very few alphabet scores being recorded - unlike day 1.
Overnight leader, after just one race, Bay of Islands crew Andrew Child/Sol Downes dropped back to 8th overall after placing 26th in their first race of the day (their discard) but recovered to finish fifth in race 4 - which in the very competitive fleet was a very countable score.
Youth crew of Callum Hyde (MBSC/WBC) and Jake Dickey (Napier SC) put their 14th place behind them from the opening day and put together a very solid performance finishing second in the first race of the day, sailing in 12-17kt SW winds. They backed that up with an emphatic pair of wins in Races 3 & 4, but were unable to pull off the hat-trick finishing 6th in the final race of the day. Their performance, with the help of a discarded worst score, lifted them to the top of the series leaderboard, with 10pts from four countable races.
Bay of Islands father and son crew of David and Cameron Ferris, were another to spring back into series contention, after dropping an alphabet score (DNF) from Race 1, and almost mirrored the Ferris result, placing 9th in Race 2, and then scoring back to back second places, before winning the final race of the day to finish the day on 14pts - and winning the tiebreaker by virtue of their Race 5 win.
The expected arm wrestle between the top two skippers at the 2024 Optimist Nationals continued, with Junior division contestant Nathan Soper crewed by Lauchy Wills lying third overall on 14pts. Optimist National Champion Matteo Barker crewed by Blake Batten are just 1pt behind on 15pts.
Gemma Hebberd/Gretel Satterwaite (Murrays Bay SC) remained the top female crew in 9th place.
The Cook Islands crew of Maya and Olivia Postrzygacz from the Rarotonga Sailing Club are the top international crew in 15th overall and are tied on points with Mattisse Bretegnier/Oscar Taleb (Cercle Nautique Caledonien)
The Regatta continues until Monday, with lighter winds predicted.
For full results www.sailwave.com/results/RSFeva_Nationals_2024.htm