Meech and Rippey in top form on world stage

IN FORM: Tauranga's Molly Meech, right, and Alex Maloney are in contention at a major world regatta in Germany. PHOTO: FILE

The weather might have been a bit volatile but at least the New Zealand sailors at the Kiel Week regatta were able to maintain some order.

They had to contend with a lack of breeze, lightning, thunderstorms, torrential rain and squalls all in one day but Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey (Tauranga) did well in the unstable conditions to maintain their lead in the 49er competition and Alex Maloney and Molly Meech (Tauranga) are fourth in the 49erFX.

Kiel Week is one of the biggest regattas outside of world and European championships and, apart from those involved in Bermuda with the America's Cup, most of the world's top sailors are in Germany.

The Olympic silver medallists Maloney and Meech slipped one place in the overall standings but banked three solid scores - 2nd, 11th and 3rd - which was important in such difficult conditions. Their first race sometimes had 20 knots of wind and their last finished with a drift-off in 3-4 knots.

"A really good forecast is predicted so, hopefully, we will be able to stretch our legs more consistently," Maloney said. "It will also be good to line up against the best girls here [in the gold fleet].

"We had two good starts today and one average one so we will be working on that tomorrow to get off the line well."

The 49er fleet managed only two races and Porebski and Rippey came back from a tough first beat in the first race to finish in the top 10 before finishing third in the second race.

"In the second race, the breeze was really shifty and went hard right and then died," Porebski said. "We managed to get on the right side of the big shift and then held off the rest of the fleet. It was really light by the finish and a few boats got timed out.

"We waited around for a few hours to get another race under way but it didn't end up happening so it was a really long day on the water. All in all, it was a pretty good day."

Porebski and Rippey are level on nine points with Australian pair David Gilmour and Joel Turner with a further six points back to Olympic bronze medallists Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel from Germany.

The top 25 boats now compete in the gold fleet with five races before the double points medal race.

"The next two days are pretty important," Rippey said. "We probably need to keep the low scores coming and try to keep consistent at the front so that by the time we get to the medal race we still have a shot at winning the regatta."

Standings:

49er (69 boats)
1st: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 4 1 1 (10) 3 - 9 points
2nd: David Gilmour / Joel Turner (AUS) 1 4 3 1 (19) - 9 points
3rd: Erik Heil / Thomas Ploessel (GER) (15) 1 3 5 6 - 15 points

49erFX (48 boats)
1st: Victoria Jurczok / Anika Lorenz (GER) (26) 1 1 4 4 1 - 11 points
2nd: Tina Lutz / Sasann Beucke (GER) 1 5 (16) 3 3 2 - 14 points
3rd: Enia Nincevic / Petar Cupac (CRO) (15) 6 4 4 1 4 - 19 points
4th: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 4 1 (17) 3 11 2 - 21 points