Today's Sailing News 

 Olympic Sailing Day 5

Day 5 of saw the best and most consistent breezes so far.  After rain and clouds a steady NE sea breeze filled in.  Only the Men's Mistral class failed to complete all scheduled races.

Weather:  It looks like another weather front will roll through Sydney.  Winds are forecast to be NW/NE switching to SW.  Velocity from 10 to 20.  Hopefully the front comes at the right time for good sailing.

Mistral Sailboards: Men's Fleet

Course: B

The Men's board sailing fleet switched courses.  Sailing on Course B they were the only fleet not to complete 2 races.

Winner of the days race was New Zealand's Aaron Mcintosh.  2nd was Argentina's Carlos Espinola with China 3rd.

Overall, Austria's Christoph Sieber is still 1st 4 points ahead of Espinola.  Mcintosh is 3rd.

American Mike Gebhardt was 10th.  He's in 9th place.

4 races are left on the schedule to see is Sieber can maintain his lead.

Mistral Sailboards: Women's Fleet

Course: B

The women's Mistral again was dominated by three sailors.  Italy's Alessandra Sensini was tops for the day, with a 1st and a 2nd.  New Zealand's Barbara Kendall posted a 3rd and a 1st.  Germany's Ameile Lux finished 2nd and 5th.

Lux maintains her lead, but by just 1 point over Sensini.  Kendall is 3 points out of 1st.  Of note, Kendall has won 2 of the last 3 races.  

The USA's Lanee Butler had a good day with a 7th and a 4th. She's in 4th place, but is 29 points out of 3rd.

With 3 scheduled races it looks like an end game of the highest level for the top 3 in the fleet.

Europe Women's Dinghy

Course: C

Sailing with the Lasers on Course C the Europe's sailed 2 races.  Their postponement was the longest with racing beginning at 1448.

The days first race saw Great Britain's Shirley Robertson in 1st, Denmark's Kristine Roug in 2nd and Ireland's Maria Coleman in 3rd.  

Roug won the 2nd race and had the best day in the Europe fleet on Day 2.

Roug's better 2nd day is so far countered by Robertson's string of top 10 finishes.  Robertson leads Roug by 15 points.  Coleman of Ireland is 3rd.

Courtenay Becker Dey of the USA sailed much better on Day 2 with finishes of 5th and 8th.  She is 12th in the standings.

If 2 races are sailed tomorrow the sailors will discard their poorest score.  This along with more races could see a big shuffle in the standings.

470 Men's Fleet

Course E

Day 2 of racing saw the men's 470's complete two races.  

Race 1 went to the team of the day from Russia.  2nd was Australia, 3rd Slovokia.  

Great Britain took race 2 the Russia and Finland (15th overall) with their best race.

The USA's team which was a medal favorite had another average day.  They finished 4th and 11th and are in 6th place, 7 points out of 3rd.

After 4 races this fleet appears open for the taking.  No dominant teams have appeared.

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 Today's Sailing News 

On day 5 three boats tied for best scores of the day.  In the Denmark's Europe scored 2,1.  Italy's women Mistral scored 1,2.  Russia's Men's 470 scored 1,2.   

Laser

Course: C

The second day of Laser racing took saw wins by top sailors.

Britain's Ben Ainslie won his second straight race in the days first race.  In the day's 2nd race Brazil's Robert Scheidt was 1st.

Interestingly although these sailors have won all 4 races they also have each finishes 23rd.  Scheidt in race 3, Ainslie in race 1.

The Brazilian leads the points table by 1 point.  Gustavo Lima of Portugal is 3rd.

American John Myrdal placed 40th and 21st.  After 4 races he is 21st.

The Lasers have day 6 off.

49ers

Course: C

The 49er skiffs started their 3rd day of racing after a 90 minute postponement.  The newest Olympic class is proving ever competitive.

Three teams had a pair of podium finishes on Day 3.  Australia won the first race and was 3rd in the final race.  Great Britain was 2nd in the days first and last race.  Spain was 3rd in the initial race and 1st in the middle race.

Consistent top finishes are hard to come by.  7 of the top 10 teams scored finishes of 10th or worst.

One of these teams was the Mckee brothers of the USA.  Their day went 14th (their 1st discard race) 13th and then 1st.  This undistinguished day was enough to put them in 1st.  They are even on points with Finland, but with two wins the tie breaks in the Mckee's favor.  3rd is Great Britain with 35 points.  Then it's Spain with 36 points and Australia and Germany with 40.

The 49er victory formula may not be race wind, but top 10's.

Tornado Catamarans

Course: F

The Tornado's were back racing after an off day.  They sailed on one of the offshore courses.

Austria won the 1st race and finished 4th in the 2nd race.  Remarkably this 4th was discarded.  Austria is the class leader with 8 points.  

Australia is 2nd with 16 points.  France is 3rd with 22 points.

The USA's team of Lovell and Ogletree had a 2nd in race 1, but a discard race of 10th in the next contest.  They are 6th, 7 points out of bronze medal position.

The New Zealand team of Dickson/Sowry won race 2.  This puts them 5th, 3 points out of 3rd.

With the Tornado's having sailed 6 of the 11 expected races, the competition for the medal stand looks to have any number of capable teams.

470 Women's Fleet 

Course E

This fleet took to one of the ocean courses for its second day of racing.

Race 1 saw Israel (8th overall) and Sweden (13th overall) finish 1st and 2nd.  The Ukrainian team was 3rd.  

Race 2 was won by New Zealand, with Spain in 2nd the USA's Isler and Glaser 3rd.

After 4 of 11 races Germany leads New Zealand by 3 points and the USA by 5.