ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship – Day 3

Limassol, Cyprus (July 17, 2013) – Racing followed the schedule on the third day at the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship with warm winds and waves for the 350 sailors from 61 nations. The breeze kicked in nice and early, working its way up to 16 knots with gusts of 20 knots.

New Zealand’s Isaac McHardie and Micah Wilkinson are dominating the SL16 fleet, opining up a 14 point advantage over their rivals having won five of nine races with four remaining over the final two days of competition.

The team, who stepped into the multihulls after missing out on a 29er spot at their national trials, have taken the fleet by storm. “We’ve been sailing cats since February,” said Wilkinson. “We learned heaps in France which was awesome and brought that into here and we are getting some good results.”

No one has been able to take a stranglehold in the RS:X Girls fleet and for the third consecutive day there is a new leader in the form of China’s Lu Yunxiu.

Yunxiu has only finished out of the top five once and a 3-2-2 brought her to the top of the pack on 24 points. Overnight leader Marta Maggetti (ITA) is now two points behind with Race 7 winner Sara Wennekes (NED) upgrading to third place overall.

The day’s race wins went to Wennekes, Saskia Sills (GBR) who is sixth and Marion Lepert (USA) who is fourth. The top six have all shared the race wins over nine races making for an exciting finish.

Racing resumes across the eight classes on Thursday and concludes on Friday.

Full report – Daily video