#optiworldsnz – Support from home including Volvo Ocean Race sailor Damian Foxall urged Sophie Browne back in to the top ten of the Optimist World Championships at Napier, New Zealand today. The 14 year old from Tralee maintained her position at the top of the leader board in one of the world's toughest youth sailing class against a fleet of 208 competitors drawn from 48 countries.
Day four saw racing resume for the 210 boat fleet following a lay day yesterday, and two races were successfully completed. Sophie placed 31st and 5th which, allowing for a discard, which means the Kerry sailor now climbs six places to ninth overall.
Support at home has been building throughout the week and last night from his base in Abu Dhabi Ireland's top offshore sailor Damian Foxall from Team Groupama added his support on afloat.ie
"Hi Sophie, Well done, great to see you are still forging ahead. Good luck for the rest. Maybe see you in Galway, hi to all the family" the Groupama crew boss wrote last night on this site.
Browne is the sole representative for Ireland at the Championships with racing having begun on New Year's Day.
The 210 competitors from 48 countries have been divided into six groups resulting in three fleets per race and a spectacle on the start line with seventy boats per race. Light winds have unfortunately hindered some racing with only one successful race being completed on both Day 1 and Day 3 however four successful races on Day 2 and two on Day 4 (today) tally an overall of eight solid results for Sophie, allowing for one discard. Sophie has maintained her position at the top of the leader board with all seven of her results in the top 20, three of which in the top 5. She is currently 9th overall with racing continuing until Monday the 9th.
It was busy at the breakfast table this morning with sailors keen to get back onto the water after a day of sight seeing.
Sailors went onto the water at the scheduled time to start the first race at 1025, but with winds between 1 and 4 knots, there was not much sailing.
"We made the call to send the sailors back to shore at 1245" according to Gerald Martin, Principle Race Officer. "No racing had been done, and it didn't look like anything was going to happen any time soon as there was hardly any wind" Mr Martin continues.
Sailors were called back onto the water by 1310, but it wasn't until 1535 before the first race of the day started. The leader board changed after the seventh race: Ryan Lo who held the first position was disqualified from race 7 and dropped to place 7. Bart Lambriex from the Netherlands who finished second in race 7 took over the leadership position.
Wind increased to 8 knots by the time the eight race started, and the race committee managed to do all three fleets. It was a long day for the sailors with many headed back to shore just before 1900.
Bart Lambriex finished 15th in the eight and last race but managed to keep his prime position om the overall scores, followed by Ahmad Syukri Abdul Aziz from Malaysia with Javier Arribas solid in place three. The first female sailor is Kimberly Lim from Singapore on place four.
Whether there will be any sailing tomorrow depends entirely on the weather. The weather prediction at 2200 are very strong winds: up to 31 knots, heavy rain: 13.9 mm/hr and very high swells. We expect the Race Committee to make a call first thing tomorrow morning.
The provisional leader board (for the individual racing) after 8 races shows: 1 Bart Lambriex (NED) 40 points, 2 Ahmad Syukri Abdul Aziz (MAS) 48 points, 3 Javier Arribas (PER) 48 points, 4 Kimberly Lim (SIN) 59 points, 5 Miel Verstraete (BEL) 61 points, 6 Ryan Lo (SIN) 68 points, 7 Leonard Takahashi-Fry (NZL) 68 points, 8 Maria Vittoria Marchesini (ITA) 70 points, 9 Sophie Browne (IRL) 73 points, 10 Rodrigo Luz (BRA) 78 points.
