Despite a huge storm front battering Port Phillip in the early afternoon, most classes were able to complete a full slate of racing on day three of Sail Melbourne International on Sunday.
 
The thick squall carried a sheet of small hail stones, and hit the bay just as most of the racing was wrapping up with the Laser, Laser Radial and Laser 4.7s the only fleets restricted to one race.
 
It was challenging day for the Laser Standard fleet with six recalls delaying the start of racing. After one race on Sunday, three-time Olympian Jean Baptist Bernaz continues to lead with Australian Sailing Team’s Matt Wearn (WA) jumping from fifth to second after finishing today’s race in fifth. 

“I think we had about six general recalls so there was a lot of people getting black flagged. So it took us a while to get going, but we finally had a nice race in what felt like a sea breeze,” Wearn said about the events of the day. 
 
“I’m not sure why it happened (so many recalls), people are just too eager I think. But there has still been good racing, I rounded in the top five and just held that position the whole way around. I picked up a place here and there and lost a place here and there so finished fifth and I’ll take that,” Wearn added. 
 
Rio Olympic champion Tom Burton was one of the sailors affected by the series of black flags and dropped from second into seventh place. 

“It was a long day and I think we had six or seven general recalls. I think I might have gotten black flagged in the very last one but I did the race anyway so it was good fitness. It was 20 knots and it just built and built and built. I’m knackered to be honest,” Tom Burton said.
 
Going into the last two days of racing, New Zealand’s Thomas Saunders is ranked third overall after finishing tenth in the race on Sunday. 
 
“Today was a longer day than it should have been. The standard boats weren’t very good on the start line, we had maybe six general recalls. So we got quite behind in the time there and we only got one in before the storm started to set in which was a bit frustrating,” Saunders said. 
 
“I didn’t have a great first race but I managed to come back to a half decent result so pretty happy. Yesterday for me was pretty good, day one started off with a black flag, so not the way you want to start a regatta but I managed to bounced back yesterday and continued on today. So hopefully a few more days and see where we end up,” Saunders said about his regatta so far. 
 
Over 300 competitors from 25 countries are competing at Sail Melbourne International and sitting in fourth place overall in the Laser is Guatemala’s Juan Maegli.
 
“Today was a great day, we only did one race with this storm coming through but the race that we did was pretty good. I had a good race, finished third, so yeah happy with the day. It has been windy the whole three days so we are a bit tired, but it has been great sailing,” Maegli said after the race on Sunday.  

Maegli is already selected for Tokyo 2020 after securing his country a quota spot at the 2019 Pan American Games and is enjoying is time in Australia. 
 
“This my third time in Australia, I enjoy it a lot over here. I was in Melbourne in 2010, so a long time ago.”
 
In the women’s Laser Radial, Ireland’s Olympic silver medallist Annalise Murphy won the one and only race of Sunday and moved up into fifth place overall and third ranked female. 
 
Rio Olympic champion Marit Bouwmeester continues to lead the female rankings after an eighth place on Sunday with Italy’s Rio Olympian Silvia Zennaro following in second after posting a second. 
 
“It was a nice day, but it took a bit long to get started. I think it took them an hour and 15 minutes to get the guys on the way, and then even the 4.7s had a general recall so it was a long day on the water for only one race and that was a shame. But it was good and it’s nice to be here and get some racing in,” Bouwmeester said. 
 
Western Australian youth sailor Michael Compton is still leading the Radial fleet overall and posted a third on Sunday. 
 
“We have had quite a few windy days which suits me because I am from WA and we always get the windy sea breeze. I thought Nationals and Youth Nationals were my two biggest events so coming to this one there isn’t really any pressure. It is really about getting the training in before our men’s worlds, whereas for these guys (the women) it’s world ranking points so there’s quite a lot of pressure for them so I’ve got a bit of an advantage there,” Compton said about racing the world’s best female laser radial sailors. 

Two races were completed in the Olympic Finn class with Australian Sailing Squad’s Jake Lilley (QLD) continuing to build his lead after two race wins. Switzerland’s Nils Theuninck is sitting in second with Tom Ramshaw from Canada following in third. 
 
Racing continues on Monday for day four of the event and with racing scheduled to commence from 2:00 p.m. at both Sail Melbourne International race venues Royal Brighton Yacht Club and Sandringham Yacht Club (Laser fleets). 
 
See all results here: http://bit.ly/SailMelbourne2020Results

Australian Sailing Team (AST) and Australian Sailing Squad (ASS) results:

Laser (70 boats)
2nd Matt Wearn - 4, (24), 1, 11, 5 - 21pts
5th Luke Elliott - 5, 18, 3, (19), 2 - 28pts
7th Tom Burton - 2, 5, 17, 5, (71) - 29pts
15th Mitch Kennedy - 16, (31), 9, 18, 11 - 54pts
17th Finn Alexander - (30), 12, 25, 4, 19 - 60pts

Laser Radial (85 boats)
14th Mara Stransky - 8, 10, 10, (15), 6 - 34pts
17th Zoe Thomson - (13), 8, 12, 5, 13 - 38pts
28th Elyse Ainsworth - 18, 5, 13, (20), 16 - 52pts

Finn (8 boats)
1st Jake Lilley - 1, 1, (2), 1, 1, 1 - 5pts

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Photos: Beau Outteridge