24 Feb 2016

NZ sailors still on top despite disatrous day

4:10 pm on 24 February 2016

The New Zealand men remain in top spot at sailing's 470 World Championships despite a disastrous second day of racing in Argentina.

NZ 470 Men's sailors - Paul Snow -Hansen and Jason Saunders.

New Zealand men's 470 sailors. Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Conditions at the of San Isidro, characterised by its brown silty tricky-to-read water, were very light and only one race was possible for both the men's and women's fleets.

After their dream start with two wins on day one, Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox managed a solid race again today to cross the line 11th, only to learn they'd suffered a start line disqualification.

"We ended up starting at the committee end of the line, and unfortunately were over," said Willcox.

"We felt like we sailed a good race, which was a positive, so hopefully we can just take forward the positives into tomorrow. Round the race course we were sailing really well, so happy with what we did on the water."

However, because the New Zealanders can discard this result from their points score they remain in the overall lead, but they're now under pressure to stay out of trouble, and produce more top results, to remain there.

Meanwhile Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie finished their race in 13th place which sees them slide to 12th overall on the women's leader board.

Racing resumes again in Argentina tomorrow for day three of the world title deciding regatta.

Overnight two races were sailed at the 2016 RS:X Women's World Championships where Natalia Kosinska has improved to lie 7th overall after a couple of great races in Eilat, Israel.

The sole New Zealand representative placed 4th and then 3rd in her two races to climb from 16th to break into the top ten after two days of racing.

A rest day is scheduled for tomorrow in Israel at the 2016 RS:X World Championships with racing set to resume on Friday, with the medal races on the final day of the regatta on Sunday (NZ time).

-RNZ