Sailing: Nacra pair revel in strong winds at Kiel Week

Alex Maloney and Molly Meech are third in the 49erFX after day two at Kiel Week. Photo: Kiel Week.

Liv Mackay and Micah Wilkinson love a bit of breeze and they revelled in the challenging conditions on the second day of the Kiel Week regatta.

The pair were second and first in the two races in the Nacra 17 class overnight (NZ time) to jump up to fourth overall, level on points with fellow New Zealanders Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders.

Racing was protracted throughout the day as sailors were often brought to shore because of the strong, gusty winds and threat of thunderstorms, which meant race organisers struggled to get through the programme.

Most of the New Zealand sailors are in the top 10 of their respective classes, with Alex Maloney and Molly Meech third in the 49erFX, Andy Maloney third in the Finn, Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox sixth in the men's 470, Courtney Reynolds-Smith and Brianna Reynolds-Smith eighth in the woman's 470 and all three combinations in the top 10 of the 49er. Youngster Josh Armit remained second in the Laser Radial world championships.

Mackay and Wilkinson posted the best results of the New Zealand contingent on day two of the world's largest sailing regatta and are only three points off second. They do, however, have a high score as a discard after pulling out of the third race of the first day due to issues with their boat so can't afford to have any big scores when gold fleet racing starts tonight.

They aren't the only ones to have had issues, with former Olympic champion and America's Cup skipper Nathan Outteridge and his sister Haylee involved in a big collision on day one that forced an early finish to their racing but they recovered to post two top-three results on day two.

"It has been pretty eventful," Wilkinson said. "Everyone is still pretty loose in our fleet and when it gets over 20 knots everyone starts to get a bit wild so we kept it pretty simple and came away pretty happy.

"It was perfect Nacra conditions with flat water and big breeze and we absolutely loved it. We had big speed downwind and some of the leaders were tipping over in a few races so we got a bit lucky there keeping it upright, keeping it simple and coming through. In the last race we nailed it [to take the win].

Mackay and Wilkinson, like most of the rest of the Kiwi contingent, are using Kiel Week as a final shakedown before the upcoming sailing world championships in Aarhus.

Andy Maloney continues to impress after his switch from the Laser to the Finn (with and America's Cup campaign in between) and finished third in today's only race in the heavyweight dinghy to move up to third overall, three points off the lead. Josh Junior is ninth, but only five points behind Maloney after finishing fifth today.

The pair came into this regatta after finishing second (Junior) and third (Maloney) at the World Cup Series final in Marseille a fortnight ago.

Strong breezes are again forecast in Kiel for day three when finals racing gets underway and there won't be too many New Zealand sailors unhappy about that.

Results and standings after the second day of the Kiel Week regatta overnight (NZ time):

Men's 470 (49 boats)
1st: Anton Dahlberg / Fredrik Bergstrom (SWE) 2 (5) 1 1 - 4 points
2nd: Mathew Belcher / Will Ryan (AUS) 1 2 (13) 2 - 5 points
3rd: Kazuto Doi / Naoya Kimura (JPN) 2 3 1 (6) - 6 pts
6th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) 4 2 (11) 3 - 9 pts

Women's 470 (28 boats)
1st: Frederike Loewe / Anna Markfort (GER) (9) 1 1 4 - 6 pts
2nd: Nadine Bohm / Ann-Christin Goliab (GER) 2 4 3 (7) - 9 pts
3rd: Maria Bozi / Rafailina Klonaridou (GRE) (7) 2 6 2 - 10 pts
8th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) 3 (16) 16 5 - 24 pts

49er (87 boats)
1st: Mathieu Frei / Noe Delpech (FRA) 2 1 (17) 5 2 - 10 pts
2nd: Federico Alonso / Arturo Alonso Tellechea (ESP) 3 (15) 3 1 7 - 14 pts
3rd: Jonas Warrer / Jakob Precht Jensen (DEN) 5 (11) 5 4 1 - 15 pts
5th: Josh Porebski / Trent Ripey (NZL) 5 3 3 (6) 5 - 16 pts
8th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 15 2 1 (44 DNC) 9 - 27 pts
10th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 4 4 (28) 15 6 - 29 pts

49erFX (54 boats)
1st: Odile van Aanholt / Marieke Jongens (NED) 3 (11) 2 2 4 - 11 pts
2nd: Tina Lutz / Susann Beucke (GER) 5 3 3 1 (8) - 12 pts
3rd: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 3 4 1 (10) 6 - 14 pts

Nacra 17 (44 boats)
1st: Jason Waterhouse / Lisa Darmanin (AUS) 1 1 1 2 (3) - 5 pts
2nd: John Gimson / Anna Burnet (GBR) 3 2 (5) 1 3 - 9 pts
3rd: Thomas Zajac / Barbara Matz (AUT) 2 (4) 3 3 2 - 10 pts
4th: Liv Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 4 5 (24 DNF) 2 1 - 12 pts
5th: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) 2 (5) 1 5 4 - 12 pts

Finn (79 boats)
1st: Ed Wright (GBR) 3 4 (13) - 7 pts
2nd: Zsombor Berecz (HUN) (28) 8 1 - 9 pts
3rd: Andy Maloney (NZL) (15) 7 3 - 10 pts
9th: Josh Junior (NZL) 10 (20) 5 - 15 pts

Women's Laser Radial (82 boats)
1st: Maxime Jonker (NED) 1 1 - 2 pts
2nd: Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) 2 1 - 3 pts
3rd: Manami Doi (JPN) 4 2 - 6 pts
15th: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 5 11 - 16 pts

Laser Radial worlds (97 boats)
1st: Zac Littlewood (AUS) (4) 1 2 1 - 4 pts
2nd: Josh Armit (NZL) 1 3 (47 DNC) 1 - 5 pts
3rd: Aleksander Arian (POL) 3 1 1 (10) - 5 pts
34th: Caleb Armit (NZL) 5 (34) 21 18 - 44 pts