The first day of the notorious Sail Melbourne regatta saw light and glassy conditions that made it extremely difficult for race management to co – ordinate racing, across the multitude of courses.
Sail Melbourne has become renowned amongst the international sailing community. The ISAF Sailing World Cup – Sail Melbourne event is not just about the sailing. Fashion, fun and summer spirit are incorporated across all aspects of Sail Melbourne, making the regatta an exciting addition to Melbourne’s summer events calendar.
With all the on shore entertainment, on water action has been minimal as conditions haven’t allowed for exciting racing. Many of the classes could only complete one race, but in the Paralympic Skud 18 class two races were completed, and Queenslander Daniel Fitzgibbon racing with Rachael Cox are holding in at 3rd position behind internationally renowned Australian and Great British teams.
In the Laser racing, Queensland 4.7 sailor Madison Kennedy leads overall after taking a win in the one and only race of the day. The fickle conditions made it extremely difficult for the race committee to get all racing done, and fleets were abandoned. Brother to Madison, Mitchell commented on his days racing, in the Laser radial fleet, “The wind came in and looked promising at about 5 knots. We got a start away and the wind dropped to basically nothing, and finally our racing was abandoned”
470 winners- Sail Melbourne 2009
Across the double hander fleet, the 420 sailors struggled to get racing underway. Queensland’s women’s team Elle Brake and Jamie Ryan ended up second after only one race. Brake commented on the days racing, “It was really, really light and we didn’t get a race till 5pm, however we ended up in second”. In the 470 Olympic class, World Champions and Queenslander Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page lead after qualifying and the first race of the series.
Tomorrow conditions should improve with a predicted 10 – 15 increasing 15-20 knot south easterly, with a sunny hot day predicted. This should give the race committee a great chance to truly kick start racing down here at the Sandringham Yacht Club.
Andrew Gough