| MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA-(4-1-2003) Royal Brighton YC in Victoria is playing host to the Olympic class Finn and Europe single-handed dinghies and Yngling keelboat Championships in the lead up to the Sail Melbourne Invited & Olympic Class Regatta due to start on January 11.
The regatta, which started today, will give a good indication of who is in form and likely to take valuable points to gain representation for their various countries at the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece.
Two races were sailed today - the first in fickle sloppy conditions of around 3-5 knots, but by the second race of the day the wind had picked up - the sea breeze came in around 6-10 knots, giving the three fleets much better racing conditions.
In the Yngling three-boat class, World Ranked No. 2, Melanie Dennison/Fiona Herbert/Caroline Aders (Vic) had their usual tussle with Sydney's Nicky Bethwaite/Kate McHugh/Kristin Kosmala, both vying for the Olympic spot.
Team Dennison finished today with two 2nd placings, while Team Bethwaite scored a 1st and a 3rd - leaving them equal on points on Day 1 and leading the class.
Bethwaite commented 'the breeze was very light in the first race, sloppy and fickle - hard to get boat speed in, but by the second race, the sea breeze had come in. I am happy, because we had a good solid start.'
Dennison was surprised there was no sign of the south-westerlies that are the norm in Melbourne but said 'the conditions don't really worry me too much, but I was looking forward to the sou-wester, which didn't eventuate.'
In the Europe, Victoria's Sarah Blanck, the current World champion, posted a convincing 2-1 result to lead from Larissa Nivierov (ITA) with a 1-3 and Sarah Macky (NZL) world ranked 12, finished with a 3-2 result.
The surprise of the day was world ranked 2 Carolijn Brouwer (NDL), who finished with a 4-4. she explained, 'it was really tricky out there, I haven't sailed in Melbourne for a long time. I missed the pressure a couple of times, I picked the shifts too late in the first race and misjudged them in the second, it was a day for thinking, and I didn't think enough.'
In the Finn dinghy, Australian representative at the 2000 Olympics, Anthony 'Nocka' Nossiter finished with a 1-1 from Pascal Rambeau (FRA) with a 2-2, and Paul McKenzie (AUS) with 5-3, with international representatives including Sebastien Godefroid yet to arrive in Melbourne.
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