Trans-Tasman bragging rights at stake at Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta

Any regatta win is sweet but for Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey it tastes even better when it's over their trans-Tasman rivals and that's what they will be chasing tomorrow on the final day of the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta at Murrays Bay.

The New Zealand pair are sandwiched between a pair of Australian crews in the 49er, two points behind leaders William and Sam Phillips and one point ahead of David Gilmour and Joel Turner.

Porebski and Rippey sailed consistently well today in 12-15 knots of breeze, picking up two race wins and never finishing outside the top four in today's five races in the 15-boat fleet.

The 49er is one of the most competitive classes at the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta and has attracted a handful of top Australian crews and it's translated to good rivalry on the water.

"Its been bloody good," Rippey said. "We went over to Sydney late last year and raced against those boys. Dave and Joel got the better of us at the last event and that fired us up so that when we got home we did some hard training. Hopefully we can peg them back in this regatta and take them."

Lighter winds than the first two days are forecast tomorrow but Porebski said they haven't minded the big breezes.

"We have had two good days of big waves and challenging conditions, so thats been really good," he said. "The first day was full survival sailing. The more you can do that in a 49er and get comfortable, the better you will be in Europe because nine times out of 10 its always windy over there."

New Zealand's top Laser sailors are also preparing for the European season and Sam Meech and Tom Saunders continued their close battle. Meech got the better of his fellow NZL Sailing Team member today with three wins and a second and will go into the final day with a one-point advantage over Saunders.

"I was up the front most of the day fighting it out with Tom," Meech said. "I ended up with a couple of firsts and a second. Tom and I have been pretty consistent so it starts again tomorrow."

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders hold the lead going into the final day of the Nacra 17 class, but the scoreboard didn't tell the full story of the day.

Liv Mackay and Micah Wilkinson went to the aid of Christian Stephenson on the final race after the Dane had his leg sliced by the foiling catamaran's rudder. Stephenson's trapeze hook broke, sending him over the side of the boat and into the path of the rudder.

He was taken to hospital and was expected to undergo surgery and is likely to be off the water for some time. The class is under the spotlight after switching to foiling catamarans for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and this incident will prompt more discussion about safety after an American sailor lost three fingers last year.

The Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta is New Zealands premier event for Olympic and youth classes and has attracted close to 200 sailors, including about 90 from overseas.

Results and standings from the second day of the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta at Murrays Bays today:

Laser

1st: Sam Meech (NZL) (2) 1 2 1 1 - 5 points

2nd: Tom Saunders (NZL) 1 (3) 1 2 2 - 6 pts

3rd: Andrew McKenzie (NZL) (4) 2 4 3 4 - 13 pts

Laser Radial

1st: Josh Armit (NZL) 3 1 1 1 1 1 - 5 pts

2nd: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 1 2 2 (3) 2 2 - 9 pts

3rd: Scott Leith (NZL) 2 (3) 3 2 3 3 - 13 pts

Finn

1st: Josh Junior (NZL) 1 1 (2) 2 1 - 5 pt

2nd: Nicholas Heiner (NED) (3) 3 1 1 2 - 7 pts

3rd: Andy Maloney (NZL) 2 2 (3) 3 3 - 10 pts

Men's 470

1st: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) 1 1 1 1 1 (2) - 5 pts

2nd: Gunwoo Park / Sungmin Cho (KOR) (OCS 9) 2 2 2 2 1 - 9 pts

3rd: Kidong Park / Sangmin Shin (KOR) (5) 4 3 4 3 3 - 17 pts

Women's 470

1st: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) 2 3 5 5 4 (6) - 19 pts

49er

1st: William Phillips / Sam Phillips (AUS) 2 2 2 (5) 1 2 - 9pts

2nd: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 3 1 3 3 (4) 1 - 11 pts

3rd: David Gilmour / Joel Turner (AUS) 1 (4) 4 1 2 4 - 12 pts

49erFX

1st: Helene Naess / Marie Ronningen (NOR) (DNF 5) UFD 5 2 1 1 1 - 10 pts

2nd: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 1 (UFD 5) 1 4 2 3 - 11 pts

3rd: Jasmin Galbraith / Chloe Fisher (AUS) (DNC 5) 1 3 2 4 4 - 14 pts

Nacra 17

1st: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) 1 1 (2) 1 1 - 4 pts

2nd: Liv MacKay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 2 2 1 3 (DNF 6) - 8 pts

3rd: Lin Ea Christiansen / Christian Stephenson (DEN) 3 3 3 2 (OCS 6) -11 pts

RS:X 9.5

1st: Antonio Cozzolino (NZL) (1) 1 1 1 - 3 pts

2nd: Lee Hyeong Min (KOR) 2 2 2 (3) - 6 pts

3rd: Julien Savina (AUS) (4) 3 4 2 - 9 pts

RS:X 8.5

1st: Max Van der Zalm (NZL) (1) 1 1 1 - 3 pts

2nd: Lloyd Perratt (NZL) (2) 2 2 2 - 6 pts

3rd: Veerle ten Have (NZL) (3) 3 3 3 - 9 pts

Boy's 420

1st: James Barnett / Sam Street (NZL) 1 1 1 1 (2) 2 - 6 pts

2nd: Seb Menzies / Blake McGlashan (NZL) 2 (DNC 14) 2 3 1 1 - 9 pts

3rd: Kim Yonghyeon / Han Cheolkyu (KOR) 4 3 4 (5) 5 3 - 19 pts

Girl's 420

1st: Cara Higginbottom / Alice Floyd (NZL) 3 2 (6) 4 4 5 - 18 pts

2nd: Ruby Baynes / Annabel Limbrick (NZL) 7 (DNC 14) 7 7 8 10 - 39 pts

3rd: Sofia Higgott / Lizzie Shapland (NZL) 9 (DNC 14) 8 9 10 8 - 44 pts

29er

1st: Sebastian Lardies / Scott McKenzie (NZL) 1 3 1 2 (UFD 15) 2 - 9 pts

2nd: Francesco Kayrouz / Jackson Keon (NZL) 3 1 2 (UFD 15) 5 1 - 12 pts

3rd: Campbell Stanton / Will Shapland (NZL) 2 4 4 1 1 (6) - 12 pts

Nacra 15

1st: Greta Stewart / Tom Fyfe (NZL) 1 1 1 (2) - 3 pts

2nd: Helena Sanderson / Jack Honey (NZL) (4) 4 2 1 - 7 pts

3rd: Jake Lidell / Josh Berry (AUS/NZL) 2 2 3 (4) - 7 pts

Full results can be found here

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Yachting New Zealand