Today's Sailing News 

 Olympic Sailing Day 3

Day 3 of the 2000 Summer Olympics Sailing regatta was another light and frustrating day.  A SW land breeze challenged a NE sea breeze.  Only the Soling's got the their full compliment of racing.  The Tornado's scheduled to Sail on Course D near the Harbor Entrance did not race.  Many of the sailors who have raced think the sailing conditions to date have been marginal at best.

Weather:  

The weather for the racing area will be affected by a cold front arriving late Wednesday morning Sydney time.  E/NE sea breezes are expected switching to SW winds of 15-20 as the front passes.  With the uncertainty of when a front will pass, again sailors may not have steady breezes at race time.

Mistral Sailboards: Men's Fleet

Course: C

The Men's Mistral fleet continues to show the inconsistencies of light air racing.  Winning the only race sailed on Day 3 was Carlos Espinola of Argentina.  2nd was Swedish sailor Fredrik Palm who had not been in the top 10 in the first 3 races.  3rd was Australian sailor Lars Kleppisch with his first top 3 of the regatta.

Austrian Christoph Shiber had his first bad race finishing 24th.  Without discards he falls to 2nd overall, with Argentinean Espinola 1st.  

American Mike Gebhardt was 16th and sits in 8th place.  

Enough sailors has good finishes in this fleet that as the regatta progresses, the weather changes and discards take affect a very different leader board could emerge.

Mistral Sailboards: Women's Fleet

Course: C

Waiting 3 hours to begin a race the women's sailboard fleet again saw the same trio of sailors excel.  Germany's Amelie Lux posted her 3rd win of the regatta.  2nd was Italy's Alessandra Sensini and 3rd was New Zealand's Barbara Kendall.  The three sailors are in the same order overall with Lux's lead at 4 points.

American Lanee Butler finished 6th.  Taking a discard into account she is only 4 points out of 4th.

A sailor on the move is Australian Jessica Crisp.  After double digit finishes on the first day, Crisp has posted consecutive 4th places.

Perhaps different sailing conditions will bring more variety to this fleets finishing order..

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 Today's Sailing News 

Day 3 of the Olympic Sailing regatta was one class short.  The 49ers had a day off.  This is due to problems with the chemicals that make up the national flags on the spinnakers.  Organizers will procure a new set of spinnakers for the fleet which will be ready by 0900 Wednesday, Sydney time.

Soling Fleet Racing

Course: F

The Soling fleet finally managed a day where the scheduled two races were sailed.  Winds were again lite.

Winning the first race was the regatta leading team from Norway.  2nd was the USA followed by Germany.  The days 2nd race was won by Neville Whittey's Australian team, followed by New Zealand and Norway.

Norway holds an 8 point lead over New Zealand with Russia 4 more points back in 3rd.

The Soling's won't achieve medal status on the results of their current 6 race fleet racing regatta.  They are racing to be in the top 12 and move onto the match racing where medals will be won.

The top 6 teams are mathematically assured of moving on:  Norway, New Zealand, Russia, Ukraine, Australia and Netherlands.

The 4 teams out of the top 12 are:  France, Finland, Denmark and Spain.  Of these Denmark with world top 10 ranked skipper Jesper Bank is a surprise.  Finland fell from the top 12 with finishes of 15th and 14th.

The USA's Soling crew has shown inconsistency scoring:4,14,2,15.  Still this has them in 9th place which is sufficient to move on.

At the most the Soling's have two fleet races remaining.  With the inconsistent breezes it's not certain that all the races will be sailed.

Tornado Catamarans

Course: D

The Tornado's likely were in between winds.  Farther offshore the Soling's sailed in the sea breeze while inshore the Mistrals made do with a land breeze.  The Tornado's were on the course near the harbor entrance and never did sea a workable breeze, and so did not race.