Sailing: Racy 49er crew hits boardsailor

By SUZANNE MCFADDEN

They are embarrassed to admit it, but New Zealand 49er sailors Dan Slater and Nathan Handley were the culprits in an Olympic hit-and-run on Sydney Harbour.

The Kiwis were belting along at 10 knots in their racy little skiff when they ran over tiny Spanish woman boardsailor Maria del Carmen Vaz.

"All we heard was a little yelp," Slater said yesterday. "Then her head popped up under our wing. That was the first time we saw her."

Vaz, it appears, escaped shaken but unhurt in the accident on the inner harbour where Olympic racing starts on Sunday.

"We were in the wrong," admitted Slater. "We were racing along at 10 knots, and the boardsailors were going really slow. She was in our blind spot and the next minute, whammo.

"We couldn't stop and have a chat, but we saw her get back on her board, so she seemed okay. And no coaches came and told us off."

The Kiwi skiff sailors say the harbour has been crazy in the build-up to the Games. On Wednesday, they were forced to stop and pull out of a practice race when a maze of cruising boats, ferries and Olympic boats made it too dangerous to weave their way through.

"It's a zoo out there at the moment," Slater said. "There are heaps of boats - all different shapes and sizes - mingling together and it's quite dangerous.

"But it should be all sorted out for the Olympics."

More than 350 little yellow marker buoys will be dotted around the inner harbour setting out the exclusion zone, where only Olympic boats can go.

Ferries will still be allowed to cruise through the outer edges of the zone, but they will be forced to reduce their speed to three knots.

But there won't be any markers on the open sea courses outside Sydney Heads, where the bigger boats will race. Olympic officials feared container ships would get tangled in the markers, so the sailing area will be patrolled by water police.

Kiwi Star sailor Jamie Gale got a taste of the water outside the heads on Wednesday, when he fell overboard during a practice race.

His skipper, Gavin Brady, made an emergency jibe to avoid hitting the American crew, but Gale slid off the foredeck into deep water.

Brady carried on racing alone, and came back for his crewman after he had crossed the finish line.

"When I finally got my head above water, some turkey in another yacht almost ran me over," Gale said.

Was he afraid of sharks as he bobbed around on his own? "The sharks are afraid of me," he said.

The Olympic fleet enjoyed another day in perfect conditions yesterday, and the weather forecast for the first day of racing is for more of the same - a 15 knot northeasterly sea breeze that would make the Kiwis more than happy.

For the first time, all of the boats will fly the flag of their country and the 49ers' spinnakers will be fashioned like giant flags.