Locals excel at Sail Auckland

CHAMPIONS: Alex Maloney, left, and Tauranga's Molly Meech won the 49erFX title at the 2014 Oceanbridge Sail Auckland.PHOTO/SUPPLIED

After four days of compelling racing on the Waitemata Harbour, the 2014 Oceanbridge Sail Auckland finished with some fine performances from Tauranga sailors.

Looking hard to beat going into the final day, 49er world champs Peter Burling (Tauranga) and Blair Tuke wrapped up the regatta with a clean string of wins to take the title by a convincing 17-point margin.

"It was pretty interesting racing, pretty shifty, but we managed to come out on the right side of it a fair few times so we've been happy with the week and the boat was going well," says Burling.

In the 49erFX, world champions Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech (Tauranga) showed their class, fending off competition from the Netherlands to take the title.

Maloney and Meech clocked up eight wins across the 14-race series to win by six points.

In the 420, Sam Barnett and Zac Merton (both Tauranga) won a memorable title in their careers, with Napier's Olivia Mackay and Abby Goodwin second and Eliza Wilkinson and Kate Stewart third.

Up against a top class Laser Radial line-up, youth sailor Trent Rippey (Tauranga) sailed home to third overall in what was one of the largest fleets at the regatta.

Points were tight on the leaderboard among the top three going into the final day but in the end Ryan Lo Jun Han won, with Sara Winther, Olympic campaigner in the female single-hander, a point behind.

Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie secured victory in the 470. Heading into the final day with the overall lead, the reigning women's world champions sailed strongly to score 2, 1 and 1 from their three races and nail the overall victory.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox placed second overall, with James Turner and Luke Stevenson third, making it an all-Kiwi podium.

There was a compelling finish in the Finn class, with Andrew Murdoch (Tauranga), a two-time Olympian in the Laser, just holding off his younger training partner Josh Junior by one point.

Tauranga duo Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders, from the NZL Sailing Team, easily took out the victory in the Nacra 17 mixed multihull class.