The wind came out to play at the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma overnight (NZ time) and, ominously for some of their
rivals, it also signalled the emergence of Peter Burling and Blair Tuke into the top five of the 49er fleet.
The four-time world world champions are sailing their first international 49er regatta since winning gold at the 2016
Rio Olympics and got off to a slow start. But they were seventh, first and third in today's three races, the first in
gold fleet racing for the 49ers, to jump up eight places overall into fifth.
They still have some work to do to catch leaders Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell from Great Britain with one more day
of gold fleet racing before the top-10 medal race but it has been an encouraging return to top-level Olympic class
sailing.
They aren't the only Kiwis in contention in Palma. Andy Maloney continues to lead the Finn class with Josh Junior third,
Alex Maloney and Molly Meech are second in the 49erFX, Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox are third in the men's 470 and
Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders are sixth in the Nacra 17.
There was always going to be a lot of interest in how Burling and Tuke fared in their return to international 49er
sailing and they got off to an inauspicious start, hitting the mark in their first race on their way to 18th and backing
it up with a 23rd. Since then, they have returned results all in the top 10, including two race wins.
One of those came today in the strong and cold mistral wind that blew offshore from Palma. It proved challenging for
many sailors, especially as wind speeds varied from 6 to 26 knots during the same race for the Laser and Nacra 17
classes.
"We had a good day out there for the first day of gold fleet racing," Tuke said. "Obviously we had a bit of ground to
make up after qualifying but it was nice to get out there and put three low points on the board.
"We got off to a pretty difficult start in qualifying. It was really light and choppy and we struggled on day one a
little bit with unforced errors and bad races but since then we have been improving and learning all the time.
"Hopefully we can bang out three more good ones tomorrow. We still have some catching up to do and we will have to sail
really well if we want to get to the front but we are looking forward to going out there and executing some more good
races. There's still plenty to play for."
It's the same in a number of other classes, including the Finn. Andy Maloney holds an 11-point lead over both Giles
Scott of Great Britain and Josh Junior after banking a sixth and 14th in his two races today but admitted it was
challenging in the conditions.
"It was difficult to find a perfect pattern with the shifts and therefore quite hard to always get it right today,"
Maloney said. "Josh and I both fought hard today and it's really exciting to be in the hunt going into the final day of
gold fleet racing."
Snow-Hansen and Willcox continued their climb up the men's 470 leaderboard into third on the back of a 12th and fifth in
today's two races. The Swedish pair of Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom have a handy 14-point lead over the British
pair of Luke Patience and Chris Grube, with the Kiwis a further six points behind.
"It was another solid day for us in the cold NW wind," Snow-Hansen said. "We were a bit sticky in the first race but
battled for every point around the course. Big snakes and ladders so happy to come out with a keeper.
"Between races we got the boat moving faster with the help of [coach] Andrew Brown and had a much easier race up the
front end. From here we just need to keep fighting for every point and sail cleanly."
Results after day 4 of the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma overnight (NZ time):
49erFX (66 boats)
1st: Martine Soffiatti Grael / Kahena Kunze (BRA) 7 6 1 1 9 6 1 2 3 (11) 9 3 - 47 points
2nd: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 6 1 9 2 8 3 9 10 (14) 8 2 9 - 66 pts
3rd: Charlott Dobson / Saskia Tidey (GBR) 1 2 4 (25) 4 8 2 1 1 13 24 8 - 68 pts
49er (108 boats)
1st: Dylan Fletcher / Stuart Bithell (GBR) 3 3 1 6 2 5 (10) 4 1 - 25 pts
2nd: Yago Lange / Klaus Lange (ARG) 1 5 (17) 2 1 6 5 2 11 - 33 pts
3rd: Diego Botin Le Chever / Iago Lopez Marra (ESP) 5 8 9 (13) 5 2 1 7 2 - 39 pts
5th: Peter Burling / Blair Tuke (NZL) 18 (23) 1 5 7 3 7 1 3 - 45 pts
13th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 3 11 8 8 3 3 12 18 (20) - 67 pts
17th: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 8 4 11 8 20 5 (22) 9 14 - 79 pts
Silver fleet
35th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 4 9 15 23 19 9 12 12 (32) - 102 pts
Nacra 17 (59 boats)
1st: Jason Waterhouse / Lisa Darmanin (AUS) 2 5 3 9 1 7 4 3 (12) 5 10 3 - 52 pts
2nd: John Gimson / Anna Burnet (GBR) (16) 4 5 1 7 8 3 7 4 2 12 9 - 62 pts
3rd: Vittorio Bissaro / Maelle Frascari (ITA) 7 5 3 2 3 2 (31 UFD) 16 13 1 1 10 - 63 pts
6th: Gemma Jones/ Jason Saunders (NZL) 1 7 1 5 2 2 15 11 (17) 11 11 12 - 78 pts
29th: Liv Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 12 10 13 11 7 1 13 (31 UFD) 26 31 DNC 31 DNC 31 DNC - 186 pts
Finn (86 boats)
1st: Andy Maloney (NZL) 4 1 1 1 3 12 6 (14) - 28 pts
2nd: Giles Scott (GBR) 13 1 2 5 12 (14) 4 2 - 39 pts
3rd: Josh Junior (NZL) 1 7 1 (16) 1 9 7 13 - 39 pts
Men's 470 (73 boats)
1st: Anton Dahlberg / Fredrik Bergstrom (SWE) 3 5 (10) 2 5 8 3 3 - 29 pts
2nd: Luke Patience / Chris Grube (GBR) 9 6 (13) 5 4 4 5 10 - 43 pts
3rd: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) - 8 7 (38 BFD) 9 6 2 12 5 - 49 pts
Women's 470 (45 boats)
1st: Camille Lecointre / Aloise Retornaz (FRA) (13) 1 2 2 4 9 1 13 - 32 pts
2nd: Hannah Mills / Edilidh McIntyre (GBR) 3 4 4 (12) 5 2 5 11 - 35 pts
3rd: Tina Mrak / Veronika Macarol (SLO) 4 12 3 (34) 3 12 8 1 - 44 pts
39th: Susannah Pyatt / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) 17 43 (46 UFD) 17 31 37 36 32 - 212 pts
Laser Radial (118 boats)
1st: Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) 1 1 1 1 5 7 13 (60 RET) - 29 pts
2nd: Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 12 1 2 (26) 3 11 7 12 - 48 pts
3rd: Erika Reineke (USA) 6 3 3 (21) 6 9 21 3 - 51 pts
Silver fleet
62nd: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (NZL) (46) 7 33 41 37 12 4 2 - 139 pts
69th: Olivia Christie (NZL) 35 10 37 37 (38) 32 4 2 - 157 pts