Yachting: NZ crews well placed

Competitors in the Yellow Fleet prepare for the start of the Finn class first race on the Leighton Course during day three of the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand crews made solid starts to their ISAF world championships campaigns in Perth with all of the elite sailing team in action grabbing a top-10 finish yesterday.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders in the men's 470 class were the pick of the bunch, winning their opening race in the blue fleet and finishing seventh in the next to end day one in fifth.

The women's match racing squad of Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen and Susannah Pyatt continued their good form with four wins and a loss on their second day of racing to be well placed nearing the completion of round one. They race America's Anna Tunnicliffe, who won gold in the Laser Radial at the 2008 Olympics, on Wednesday before the top 10 teams from both pools square off in round two.

Dan Slater had a decent first day in the highly-competitive Finn class but lost ground on the leaders. He finished his first race of the world championships (also called the Finn Gold Cup) with a solid fifth and followed that up with an 11th to be 13th overall.

The Finn class has 77 entries from 33 nations, which is the strongest and deepest fleet assembled for the class in many years. The depth of talent is very strong, with 22 former Olympians, four Olympic medallists and four former world champions on the start line, including triple gold medallist Ben Ainslie.

The five-time world champion won both of his opening races to take an early lead in the Finn class. Ainslie led throughout the first race in the yellow fleet and came from fifth to win the second race from compatriot and current world champion Ed Wright.

"I didn't have a particularly good start [in the second race], but I was good on the downwind reach and was in front at the second mark,'' Ainslie said.

Sara Winther was the pick of the Kiwis in the Laser Radial fleet with a seventh and a sixth to be seventh overall but Natalia Kosinska had a difficult day in the women's RS:X with a sixth and 24th to be 28th overall.

The world championships are the biggest event on the sailing calendar this year and double as the Olympic qualifiers, with 75 per cent of the country qualifications for London decided at this regatta.

Snow-Hansen and Saunders will be hopeful of qualifying the men's 470 with the two 21-year-olds already well placed and they took advantage in the first race of the day in variable conditions.

"The first race was still a building sea breeze,'' Saunders said. "It was really patchy and shifty. We were able to take a look at the first flight that started ahead of us, and we learned a bit from that. We just sailed conservatively, and it turned out pretty well.''

The duo followed this up with another top-10 finish in the second race. By this time the Fremantle Doctor had arrived with some stronger pressure.

"It was a good day, a solid start to the regatta. Tough conditions to race in though'' Saunders said.

The world championships are being contested be more than 1200 sailors from 80 nations.
They run until December 18, with women's RS:X and Laser Radial and men's 470 and Finn in the opening week and men's RS:X, Laser, 49er and Star and women's 470 in the second week of competition.

New Zealand's current standings:

Men's 470
5th: Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders (1, 9)
59th: Luke Stevenson and Sam Bullock (33, 26)
61st: Mike Snow-Hansen and Derek Snow (24, 36)
71st: James Turner and Matthew Jones (37, 31)
73rd: Gareth Moore and Ben Goodwin (35, 35)

Finn
13th: Dan Slater (5, 11)
30th: Matt Coutts (15, 15)
69th: Rob Coutts (35, 34)
51st: Brad Douglas (24, 26)
53rd: Nik Burfoot (26, 25)

Women's RS:X
28th: Natalia Kosinska (6, 24)
39th: Justina Sellers (16, 22)
49th: Steff Williams (26, 21)

Laser Radial
7th: Sara Winther (7, 6)
45th: Rachel Basevi (3, 42)
63rd: Miranda Powrie (26, 33)

Women's match racing
Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen, Susannah Pyatt (4 wins, 1 loss)