Yachting: Team NZ sailors right on the pace

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Team New Zealand's sailors successfully made the switch from big-boat training to the demands of match racing to be right on the pace after the first day of the Steinlager Line 7 Cup yesterday.

After a delayed start, six of a hoped-for seven rounds were sailed in a steady 12-knot northerly.

With an extra two entries in this year's contest, two crews sat out each round. No skipper emerged unscathed, although Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker and fellow team members Bertrand Pace and Cameron Appleton, and Chris Dickson all got through with just one loss.

After going down in his first race to Italy-based New Zealander Gavin Brady by 38s, Barker won his next three.

"It was good to go racing again," he said. "After all the testing we have been doing it was a nice change."

Despite what appeared to be good conditions from the end of Hobson wharf on a course which brought the MRX boats within metres of the spectators, Barker said the conditions were shifty and the currents difficult.

"We were a bit rusty, but it was okay. In racing like this there is a huge emphasis on the start and we managed those reasonably well."

After beating Rod Davis by a bare 0.3s in his second race, Barker cleared out to down Appleton by more than half-a-minute in his third. It was sweet revenge for Barker who lost to his 22-year-old rival in last year's semifinals.

In his final race of the day, Barker outclassed Italian Nicola Celon.

Defending champion Pace started slowly with a loss to England's Andy Green and a second-round bye, but bounced back strongly to finish the day with four straight wins to join Dickson and Appleton at the top of the table.

Dickson, a three-time winner (the last in 1989), began his day with a win over the hapless Celon - ranked 20th in the world - and made it two by beating world No 12 Bjorn Hansen, before dropping his only race when beaten by 0.5s by world No 3 and Swedish Match Grand Prix leader Magnus Holmberg.

"No problems," Dickson said as he stepped ashore. "We survived the first day which is important. We are still there."

His clashes with Appleton, Barker and Pace in successive races in the latter rounds today promise plenty.

The hoped-for European challenge has been disappointing.

Celon, on his first visit, was the only skipper without a win, while Holmberg needed to win his last two to stay in touch.t

The all-Swedish affair between Holmberg and Hansen was one of the best of the day.

Both boats sailed well beyond the bottom mark at the end of the first leg before Holmberg seized the initiative.

Organisers hope to sail the remaining eight rounds in the first round-robin from 10 am today.