Sailing: Kiwi crews start well at World Cup regatta

Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn are third after the first day of the World Cup regatta in Hyeres. Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing.

Eight New Zealand crews were in the top 10 but it wasn't without its challenges on a tricky first day of racing at the World Cup regatta in Hyeres.

Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn were the best placed of the Kiwis in third in the 49er and both Paul Snow Hansen and Dan Willcox (men's 470) and Tom Saunders (Laser) were fourth.

Dunning Beck and Gunn have demonstrated their potential to do well at events, having finished third at last year's pre-Olympic regatta in Enoshima, but they're striving for greater consistency as they look to develop their partnership.

That was a feature of their results overnight (NZT) as they banked a fourth, third and sixth in the three races sailed in variable 6-11 knot easterlies to leave them only three points behind Poland's Dominik Buksak and Szymon Wierzbicki and Australians David Gilmour and Joel Turner. The discard for the worst result has already come into play for the 49er fleet and Dunning Beck and Gunn are in a strong position with a sixth their worst score so far.

"It was tough racing in the big fleet," said Dunning Beck, who last year skippered the New Zealand entry in the Youth America's Cup.

"It was really hard to get off the start line with the choppy light breeze and a very pushy fleet. It was very easy to end up stuck at the back with only a small mistake, but we managed to wrangle a few clean results to keep our points tidy.

"It was important to keep clear of the carnage and find some space to get the boat zipping because it was too easy to get near the pack and get sucked into the catfight."

Fellow Kiwis Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey experienced that in the second race when the helm of one of the Swedish teams dropped his tiller at the start, causing their boat to spin onto port and hooking their jib on the wing of the New Zealander's boat.

Porebski and Rippey struggled to catch up with the rest of the 40-boat fleet, finishing 34th in that race. Although that is so far their discard, it puts pressure on them to ensure they don't have another big score throughout the rest of the week.

Saunders was another who put together a couple of consistent scores - 12th and fourth - to be fourth in the 69-boat Laser fleet. All three Kiwis are in the top 10 after the first day, with Sam Meech seventh and Andrew McKenzie 10th.

Olympic silver medallist Tonci Stipanovic (Croatia) dominated the day, winning both races by big margins, and he's five points clear of world champion Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus.

"It was a good start to the regatta for me but it didn't come easily," Saunders said. "The breeze was better than expected but was quite tricky with a lot of leverage on our beats. You had to be more on the aggressive side today, and were rewarded for it. It was stressful but I'm happy to get off to a good start and can hopefully continue on from here."

Snow-Hansen and Willcox won the opening race of the men's 470 and backed that up with an 11th to be fourth overall. Andy Maloney and Josh Junior were seventh and eighth respectively in the Finn and Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders were 10th in the only race possible for the Nacra 17 fleet.

Relatively light winds are forecast for the coming days, which will magnify mistakes and raise the potential for big scores on the card.

"Tomorrow looks similar to today breeze-wise so, with how tough it was today, it's practically a restart tomorrow," Dunning Beck said.

"Everyone will be more wired to make sure they get some space after having a tough time today so the racing will likely be even harder. We are just going to try to race very simply - make the boat go fast to try to get to the front."

Results after the first day of the World Cup regatta in Hyeres, France, overnight (NZ time):

Men's 470 (40 boats)
1st: Anton Dahlberg / Fredrik Bergström (SWE) 3 4 - 7 points
2nd: Hao Lan / Bo Zhou (CHN) 2 7 - 9 pts
3rd: Giacomo Ferrari / Giulio Calabrò (ITA) 9 2 - 11 pts
4th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Daniel Willcox (NZL) 1 11 - 12 pts

Women's 470 (36 boats)
1st: Mengxi Wei / Haiyan Gao (CHN) 6 1 - 7 pts
2nd: Hannah Mills / Eilidh McIntyre (GBR) 5 4 - 9 pts
3rd: Camille Lecointre / Aloise Retornaz 1 11 - 12 pts
20th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) 24 14 - 38 pts

49er (40 boats)
1st: Dominik Buksak / Szymon Wierzbicki (POL) 3 (5) 1 - 4 pts
2nd: David Gilmour / Joel Turner (AUS) 2 2 (27) - 4 pts
3rd: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 4 3 (6) - 7 pts
15th: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 19 (34) 5 - 24 pts

49erFX (39 boats)
1st: Ida Marie Baad Nielsen / Marie Thusgaard Olsen (DEN) 1 1 - 2 pts
2nd: Helene Naess / Marie Rønningen (NOR) 4 3 - 7 pts
3rd: Amelia Stabback / Ella Clark (AUS) 2 8 - 10 pts
15th: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 8 31 - 39 pts

Finn (40 boats)
1st: Jonathan Lobert (FRA) 2 3 - 5 pts
2nd: Jorge Zarif (BRA) 5 1 - 6 pts
3rd: Ioannis Mitakis (GRE) 4 4 - 8 pts
7th: Andy Maloney (NZL) 8 14 - 22 pts
8th: Josh Junior (NZL) 16 9 - 25 pts

Laser (69 boats)
1st: Tonci Stipanovic (CRO) 1 1 - 2 pts
2nd: Pavlos Kontides (CYP) 2 5 - 7 pts
3rd: Lorenzo Brando Chiavarini (GBR) 13 3 - 16 pts
4th: Tom Saunders (NZL) 12 4 - 16 pts
7th: Sam Meech (NZL) 7 20 - 27 pts
10th: Andrew McKenzie (NZL) 22 7 - 29 pts

Laser Radial (64 boats)
1st: Paige Railey (USA) 1 1 - 2 pts
2nd: Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 4 2 - 6 pts
3rd: Viktorija Andrulyte (LTU) 7 6 - 13 pts
25th: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 24 33 - 57 pts
57th: Olivia Christie (NZL) 64 45 - 109 pts

Nacra 17 (30 boats)
1st: Ben Saxton / Nicola Boniface (GBR) 1 - 1 pts
2nd: Ruggero Tita / Caterina Marianna Banti (ITA) 2 - 2 pts
3rd: Iker Martinez / Olga Maslivets (ESP) 3 - 3 pts
10th: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) 10 - 10 pts
22nd=: Liv Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 31 UFD - 31 pts