Sailing: Local sailors haul in half Kiwi medals

Peter Burling, (left), and Blair Tuke in action at the ISAF Sailing World Cup. Photo / Supplied

Tauranga sailors have won three of the NZL Sailing Team's six medals at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Weymouth.

One of the teams' most successful international regattas saw a medal haul of one gold, four silver and one bronze.

Gold in the 49er for Tauranga's Peter Burling and Blair Tuke further extended their unbeaten run in the class, with team-mates Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski sharing the podium winning silver.

Both New Zealand's women's double-handers crews won silver medals with Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie beaten on count-back only by long-time rivals Saskia Clark and Hannah Mills (Great Britain).

Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech of Tauranga took silver in 49erFX, also overthrown in the final race.

Featuring strongly all week in the Finn standings, New Zealanders Josh Junior and Tauranga's Andrew Murdoch won silver and bronze respectively.

Despite a poor start at the regatta, Burling and Tuke were back in front in the men's 49er class in time for the final day's medal race with an 18-point buffer over teammates Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski.

All went according to plan for Burling and Tuke and after a sixth place on the water they collected gold, extending their amazing unbeaten run to 17 straight victories at the major events in the class.

"Our first win in Weymouth," said a delighted Burling.

"We had a little bit to do, but we had a little bit of a points gap on second so the game plan was to try and stay close to them, and we managed to put together a relatively solid result."

Also taking a lead into the medal race, Maloney and Meech were out performed in the women's 49erFX class by reigning world champions Martine Soffiatti Grael and Kahena Kunze.

The Brazilians gained an early lead in the medal race and never relinquished it. Maloney and Meech crossed in 9th and have to settle for silver this time.

"We just didn't get the shift right today and we couldn't stay with our competitors which was a bit of a mistake and we just let the Brazilians get away from us," said Maloney. "We had a disappointing medal race and can learn [a] lot from it."

The 49er and 49erFX fleets will sail their European Championship next month in Portugal, building towards August's Aquece Rio International Regatta (Olympic test event) and then the 49er World Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina in November.

Murdoch finished sixth in the Finn class medal race, coming close to team-mate Josh Junior on points, but not close enough to take silver from him. Junior put up a good fight for gold, but couldn't take overall victory from on-form Briton Giles Scott.

This November the Finn class will sail the Finn World Cup (their 2015 World Championship) in New Zealand with Takapuna Boating Club set to host the world's best in the Olympic heavyweight dinghy later this year.

Tauranga's Sam Meech, who broke into the top 10 with great results on day four, finished the regatta in eighth place in the Laser class.