A sailor’s destiny may sometimes feel to be in the lap of the gods, but it’s what you do with what you are dealt that sorts the pedestrians from the Olympians as was demonstrated on Day Two of the Ready Steady Tokyo regatta in Enoshima, Japan.

The wind certainly was meant to abate during the regatta, but perhaps not as quickly as this. Australian Sailing’s Director of High Performance, Iain Murray, said yesterday, “The weather literally falls in the hole left behind the typhoon that is now out in the Pacific.”

Providing for a stark contrast to yesterday’s heavy weather, and therefore extra time ashore this morning, the sailors were forced ironically into a waiting game for wind. A very gentle breath of 1-5 knots from the Nor’nor’east gave way eventually to a Sou’wester of 6-10 knots, and a benign 0.5-1m sea state offered racing for all. It was also warm once more, with another 30-degree day on offer.

Showing Olympian levels of sophistication, the Australian fleet made fair work of the delicate patchwork of breeze.

First to head out on the track was the 49erFX fleet. Australia’s Tess Lloyd and Jaime Ryan continued to display their promising form, with a 15th and 3rd placing over two races.

Talking with skipper Tess Lloyd about the need for consistency, she commented, “We need to manage our starts better. When you have a bad one it really hampers you, as you do not get to play the wind shifts as much as you want. In the second race today we had a much better start, so we could race our own race in clean air, and it showed with the final result.”

It has been a big year for the ‘new’ pairing. Lloyd said of the year they have spent in development, “I love sailing with Jaime. We are a good team. We had to learn a lot, and do so quickly, to be able to be in the contention with the fleet. Now we can push hard, as our boat handling has improved immensely. Jaime has done really well crossing over from the 470 to the skiff.”

“We are pretty excited right now, and this is a big step forward for Olympic qualification. The Sailing World Cup just after this regatta is also pretty crucial, as are the impending World Championships in New Zealand, and then Geelong in the lead up to Tokyo 2020. It is a killer six months, but being here is a good start.”

Commenting on the importance of sailing to our Olympic program from Enoshima today, the President of Australian Sailing Matt Allen said, “We are probably going to have one of the larger teams by the time we get to 2020. We’ll be the fourth or fifth biggest fleet of all the countries, and it will be our largest team apart from Sydney 2000.”

“We have two of the best Nacra 17 teams in the world. So yes, we are blessed for talent, and it all helps with the push for selection,” Allen continued. “In classes where we have enough athletes we do look to develop the squad approach, a la the Laser. It is a credit to Michael Blackburn with what he has developed inside that squad. Only one goes, but you are well equipped to win when you pop out the top of our system.”

Bubbling up then are Nia Jerwood and Monique de Vries, representing Australia in the Women’s 470. After a super consistent first day, a 17th place seemed out of character. Speaking with Jerwood we learned, “It was a bit lighter and shifty, with holes everywhere, and we found plenty of them. We did sail quickly in parts, just not the whole race. You cannot get upset about it, and there was no chance of a second race, which would have been a lottery due to the wind crumping quickly.”

Flashing talent, young Mara Stransky also found her own way through, going from 35th to 21st, after claiming a very impressive fifth place. Asking her if removal of the downwind stress had helped she revealed a steely resolve, “I spent a lot of time last night thinking about it, and tried to have logic succeed over emotion. Today’s conditions also helped.”

Jake Lilley in the Finn pursued consistency today, delivering a strong eighth place. “It is wonderful to have another keeper in the bank. The standard in this fleet is just so strong. We’ll continue to put up our best, and a week of top ten results means you’ll be in the top five, perhaps even on the podium at the end.” It is telling that a solo sailor continues to talk in ‘we’ not ‘I’ with regards to his Olympic endeavour.

Elsewhere around the regatta Matt Wearn and Tom Burton continued their fine form both maintaining their run of top ten finishes in the Laser class, Mat Belcher and Will Ryan moved in to second behind their Spanish rivals in the Men’s 470 and Waterhouse and Darmanin put a poor first day behind them to move up to eighth in the Nacra 17.

There is certainly no hole in their efforts and preparation of the Australian Sailing Team. They just need to do what they do best – hit the water and win.

Results after Day Two:

Men’s 470 (22 boats)
2nd: Mat Belcher and Will Ryan 2, (3), 3 – 5pts

Women’s 470 (20 boats)
9th: Nia Jerwood and Monique de Vries 7, 7, (16) – 14pts

49er (21 boats)
4th: Sam and Will Phillips 5, 5, 2, 8, (18) – 20pts

49erFX (23 boats)
6th: Tess Lloyd and Jaime Ryan 4, 13, 8, (15), 3 – 28pts

Finn (22 boats)
11th: Jake Lilley 9, (11), 8 – 17pts

Laser (35 boats)
5th: Matt Wearn 3, 4, (8) – 7pts
6th: Tom Burton 4, (8), 6 – 10pts

Laser Radial (41 boats)
21st: Mara Stransky 29, 41(BFD), 5 – 34pts

Nacra 17 (21 boats)
8th: Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin 4, (20), 13, 5, 5 – 27pts

Ready Steady Tokyo Olympic Test Event
Enoshima Yacht Harbour, Fujisawa Japan

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