Yachting: Not all plain sailing for OneWorld grinder in pre-Olympic joust

Former Team New Zealand and OneWorld grinder Craig Monk was back on the water racing in the Finn class yesterday.

Monk, who won bronze in the Finn at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, was among several high-profile sailors competing at the Olympics ail regatta at Torbay.

Most classes will race over 11 races until Sunday, with the best nine to count. At stake is a trip to the pre-Olympic regatta in Athens in August.

Monk, speaking before racing yesterday, said he was keen to try the Finn again.

He won his opening race, but lost to rival Clifton Webb in the day's final two races.

In the 470 fleet, world champions and Halberg Award nominees Simon Cooke and Peter Nicholas missed the start of the first race.

It was won by Andrew Brown and Jamie Hunt, who also took the second race and were third in the final event of the day.

Christchurch brothers Philip and Stephen Keen and Aucklanders Derek Scott and David Healy also finished strongly.

But Cooke and Nicholas still look dangerous. They were sitting in a similar position at the start of this month's 470 nationals - and won.

National champion Jon-Paul Tobin did not have everything his own way in the men's Mistral fleet, with shifty southwesterly conditions not to his liking.

At the end of racing his closest rivals were an unknown Dutchman, who failed to complete his registration but scored,1,2,4, and another unidentified sailor who scored 5,1,2. These sailors need to complete the formalities for their races to count.

In boardsailing, world champion Barbara Kendall notched up an easy three consecutive firsts in the women's division.

Also scoring three straight wins was Sarah Macky in a fairly strong fleet of nine Europes.

In the men's single-handed class, the Laser, Andrew Murdoch (1, 5) and David Weaver (4, 4) were the most consistent in a scattered field.

In the double-handed 49er fleet, Team New Zealand's Dan Slater and Nathan Handley made a smooth transition from America's Cup duties to finish the day with three firsts.

The five-strong Tornado fleet were decimated in their first race with capsizes and injuries.

Race officer John Parrish sent the fleet ashore to patch up before calling them out late in the day for two more races. Early form was shown by Aaron Macintosh, whose boat was the only one to survive the first race.