Yachting: Slater expects push from top Spanish sailor

Dan Slater. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Top New Zealand Finn sailor Dan Slater is generally accustomed to having things all his own way on his home waters, but he is welcoming the arrival of new competition at this week's Sail Auckland regatta.

The ISAF grade one regatta starts at Takapuna today and continues through until Sunday.

It is the first time the Takapuna Boating Club have hosted New Zealand's premier Olympic and invited classes' regatta, with racing off the North Shore beaches as well as an inner harbour course off Westhaven for the Paralympic classes.

The Finn class has typically been a one-horse race in Auckland for the past few years, with Slater, a world championship silver medallist in 2008, a class above the rest of the competition.

But this week Slater is expected to be pushed a lot harder with top Spanish sailor Rafael Trujillo competing.

A former world champion and Olympic silver medallist, Trujillo is based in New Zealand.

The world's best will be on the men's RS:X race track with New Zealand sailing team representatives Tom Ashley and Jon-Paul Tobin in the fleet, plus top international Dorian van Rijsselberge from the Netherlands.

The battle between the New Zealand Laser squad's "hot five" also resumes today, with newly-crowned national champion Andrew Murdoch again expected to face stiff opposition from the new breed of up and comers in the class.

Sam Meech, Andy Maloney, Josh Junior and Mike Bullot were all hot on Murdoch's tail in Torbay two weeks ago and all are very capable of beating the New Zealand number one if they can have a consistent regatta.

Also included in the 29 starters are a handful of Australian sailors who are looking to give the local competition a shake-up.

There will be 30 plus boats on the Laser Radial course with sailors from the open, women's and youth divisions battling it out on the water for their respective titles.

The 470 national championships finished on Monday off Takapuna and after sailing in blustery, extreme conditions competitors have had a couple of days to recuperate before heading back out for Sail Auckland regatta.

An Olympic medallist for Great Britain, Nick Rogers took out the nationals regatta with Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders from the New Zealand sailing team the best placed of the Kiwis in second place. Both will line up against the likes of Geoff Woolley and Daniel Wilcox, James Turner and Matthew Jones plus Francisco Lardies and Finn Drummond making for an exciting re-match.

Women's world championship silver medallists Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie are on the entry list for Sail Auckland 2011 with former world champions in the 420 Alexandra Maloney and Bianca Barbarich-Bacher ready to put up a challenge.

National and international Paralympic campaigners competition at the Kiwi Cup just wrapped in Napier to do it all again at Sail Auckland 2011. In the single-handed 2.4m local sailor Josh McKenzie-Brown will race against Brit Megan Pascoe.

And in the two-person SKUD18 New Zealand representatives Tim Dempsey and Jan Apel, plus Annabelle Tye and Vaughan Robertson are teams to watch.

SAIL AUCKLAND 2011

Today-Sunday, Takapuna Boating Club. Races start from 11am daily.

Competing classes:
* RS:X
* Laser
* Laser radial
* Finn
* 470
* Paralympic - single-handed 2.4m, SKUD 18