Yachting: Burling and Tuke extend lead despite capsizing

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke extended their lead in the 49er class at the Sailing World Cup regatta in Spain. Photo / Mick Anderson

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke extended their lead in the 49er class at the Sailing World Cup regatta in Spain despite capsizing twice on an eventful day of racing.

The world champions and Olympic silver medallists are now 18 points ahead of the rest of the fleet after collecting a win and a fifth-placed finished in the high winds at Palma. They even won the second race despite capsizing early in the race.

"We raced two races today in some really big breeze and waves, lots of carnage with capsizes everywhere,'' Tuke said.

"In the first race we were leading all the way around and then capsized on the last downwind to finish, ending up fifth. In the second race we were 10th at the last top mark after an earlier capsize had dropped us back. On a crazy downwind to the finish we were the last team standing, taking the win. Looking forward to the final two days racing.''

Olympic champions Jo ALeh and Olivia Powrie remain third in the women's 470 but racing was cancelled for the day because of the high winds. There was no racing in the men's 470, either, with Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox fifth in the standings.

A number of the other Kiwi crews struggled in the challenging conditions.

Josh Junior tumbled down the standings in the Finn class. He was fifth heading into the day's racing but a 35th and 32nd saw him drop to 16th. Andrew Murdoch made up one place to be 24th.

Andy Maloney opened the day with a win in the Laser class and is now 10th _ Sam Meech is 12th and Thomas Saunders 13th _ and Natalia Konsinska is ninth in the women's RS:X boardsailing class.

New Zealand standings after day three at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Palma, Spain, overnight (NZT):

Women's RS:X (56 boards)

9th: Natalia Kosinska (11, 1, 21, 27, 6, 11, 8)

Women's 470 (47 boats)

3rd: Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (9, 17, 4, 5, 4, 2)

Men's 470 (78 boats)

5th: Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox (9, 9, 11, 12, 2, 6, 6)

49er (79 boats)

1st: Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (16, 1, 29, 2, 2, 2, 14, 1, 1, 5, 1); 41st: Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski (13, 23, 1, 28, 27, UFD); 59th: Ben Goodwin and Sam Bullock (15, 25, 28, UFD, 28, 21)

49erFX (49 boats)

15th: Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech (15, 5, 8, 23, 8, 8, 11, 10, 15, 13)

Finn (92 boats)

16th: Josh Junior (26, 6, 8, 4, 5, 9, 2, 35, 32); 24th: Andrew Murdoch (7, 14, 28, 22, 6, 20, 32, 9, 24)

Laser (144 boats) no racing today

10th: Andy Maloney (15, 13, 14, 1, 2, 13, 1, 12); 12th: Sam Meech (14, 2, 7, 10, 1, 20, 8, 28); 13th: Thomas Saunders (7, 11, 6, 3, 2, BFD, 15, 20); 71st: Andrew McKenzie (32, 23, 12, 25, 18, 15)

Nacra 17 (73 boats)

12th: Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders (27, 26, 8, 1, 13, 18, 1, 8, 15)