Lack of wind ruins last day of Sail Auckland regatta

Light and fickle winds played havoc with the final day of the Sail Auckland regatta yesterday meaning a number of classes weren't completed.

There were no races in the 470, 420, Laser, Laser Radial and Finn classes so the final results in those divisions carried over from yesterday. The RS:X, SKUD 18 and 2.4mR finished both of their races as scheduled and the 29er and 49er skiffs had just one race.

Importantly, all of New Zealand's Olympic representatives finished first in their respective fleets. Twelve sailors have so far been confirmed for the London Olympics.

In some cases, like 49er combination Blair Tuke and Peter Burling, there was little opposition. There was only one other boat to compete against throughout the four days but it was an important regatta as the sailors build up to London.

"It was a beautiful day for doing anything outside - except sailing" Tuke said. "They had to shorten our race by one lap so we could finish. There was only between one and four knots of wind."

"It took us a while to get back into racing," Burling said. "The choppy water of the long weekend was a bit different than what we're used to. The weekend was really shifty and testing conditions for us, and it was good to see all the international competitors here, even though they weren't in our fleet."

As it was all week, racing in the RS:X was extremely competitive on the final day. Australia's Jessica Crisp won both races to confirm her place at the head of the fleet.

She finished ahead of Kohimarama's Steffanie Williams and Norway's Jannicke Stalstrom.
In the men's RS:X, world champion Dorian Van Rijsselberghe also showed his class by finishing with two first-placed finishes to leave him second overall.

Richard Stauffacher was over the start line early yesterday, a mistake that saw him drop from first to third overall to allow Tae Hoon Lee of Korea to win by just one point over Dorian.