Strong, gusty, winds have ended day three of Sail Melbourne early, with only a handful of classes able to get in racing at the opening round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup.
After two days of light conditions Melbourne upped the ante on Wednesday with winds gusting above 30 knots forcing the race committee to cancel racing mid-afternoon.
Only the RS:X, 470 and Paralympic class fleets were able to complete any racing, with a number of solid performances for Australian crews.
In the RS:X women’s fleet Australian Sailing Team member Jessica Crisp ended the day second overall after a pair of fourth positions.
Crisp, who is aiming to compete at her fourth straight Olympic Games at London 2012 is now two points behind new leader, Bryony Shaw of Great Britain, who won both of the day’s races.
In the 470 women’s Elise Rechichi and Belinda Stowell continue to lead the fleet in their first ever regatta together, with a sixth on Wednesday leaving them one point ahead of the second placed Japanese crew.
The Skud 18 class completed one race with Ame Barnbrook and Lindsay Mason the best placed Australian Sailing Team crew.
Barnbrook and Mason crossed the line second to move up to second overall, five points behind Alex Rickham and Niki Birrell who have won all three races so far this regatta.
“We seemed to be in the right boat today,” said Barnbrook. “We sailed quite low risk and it paid off as we had good speed the whole way through the race.
“Though unfortunately we weren’t fast enough to catch the Brits but there’s always tomorrow,” she said.
Fellow Australians Jamie Dunross and Rachael Cox are third overall while Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch are one place further back in fourth.
Racing continues in Melbourne on Wednesday and continues until Saturday 12 November.
For more information on the Australian Sailing Team visit www.australiansailingteam.com.
Full results are available at www.sailmelbourne.com.au.
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