The final series for the silver fleet was sailed today in Auckland, giving the gold fleet sailors a day of rest before their two days’ of racing to decide the Access Liberty and IFDS Single-Person World Championships.

Breezes were light and shifty when sailors arrived on the course and in race one, there were times when they were barely making way against the two-plus knots of tide. A change of course for the second windward went unnoticed by a number of sailors and rearranged a few places. Krista BAILEY (AUS) sailed a solid race and crossed first, followed by Ross MILLER (NZL) and Michael JONES (NZL).

A gentle 5 knots of wind had settled in at 240 degrees for the second race and the tide was gradually abating. Thirteen year old Angus MACGREGOR (AUS), who scored a DNF in the first race of the day, managed a clean start with plenty of speed and led around the course. BAILEY, JONES and Sally WENLEY (NZL) kept close behind with a growing gap to the rest of the fleet.

Servo sailor Bill BRADLEY (AUS) made a lightning start to race three and led the young Australian, MACGREGOR around the first three marks. But MACGREGOR found better wind on the final run and crossed a boat length ahead of his more experienced rival.

With the breeze freshening to 5-8 knots, the sailors and Race Officer Peter CARR (NZL) were keen to get another race in before the 15:00 cut-off. MACGREGOR managed another good start and had built a 15 boat length lead after the first lap. At the end he was followed home by WENLEY and MILLER.

MACGREGOR’s three bullets in the final series was not enough though, with another Australian, Krista BAILEY from Mornington, Victoria, sailing more consistently throughout the seven heats counted to take the silver fleet championship by three points. A tie-break for second was broken in favour of MACGREGOR, with JONES the sole Kiwi in the top three. BRADLEY was the top Servo sailor.

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s racing, the top ranked sailors in the gold fleet are Andrew MAY (NZL), Joshua MCKENZIE-BROWN (NZL) and Murray MITCHELHILL (AUS).

Sailability Auckland is hosting the inaugural Glenn Family Foundation Kiwi Cup this week with racing being conducted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. The IFDS Disabled Sailing World Championship, 2009, Single Person Keelboat (Non-Technical) is being held concurrently with an Access Liberty Open World Championship and Access Liberty Servo World Championship.

ISAF Disabled Sailing microsite - www.sailing.org/disabled