NZL Laser sailor David Weaver a 19 year old from Wellington was the top scoring kiwi at the regatta finishing in 5th place after a 12 race series in the 159 competitor fleet. Yachting New Zealand High Performance Manager Peter Lester reported from Kiel earlier this morning NZ time, `this is Weaver's best results by far, all the top performers were there and the level of competition was world class, given that David is a relative newcomer to this level of competition it's an outstanding result`.

Sharon Ferris and her crew of Joanna White and Sara Winther won the first stage of the NZ Yngling trial. Ferris finished in 13th place after a total of 10 races, ahead of Alesha Thorpe, Karen Lambert and Michelle Vinsen who were 29th overall. Kiel Week is the first of a three regatta selection series for the Yngling class. The other two regattas in the series are the Yngling World Championships held in Spain, in September 2003 and the Yngling World Championships in Australia in February 2004.

Finn sailor Clifton Webb finished in 12th place in the 54 competitor fleet, his result suffering slightly from an OCS - over the start line, in the second to last race of the series, Peter Lester comments, `this is a solid result for Clifton in a very strong field showing he is more than capable of being in the top 10 in the world`.

Source: Louise Andrews - Yachting New Zealand