Day 2 in Brisbane became a spectacular day with wind building up from 12 to 25 knots during racing. After the first race of the Techno fleet, some went ashore to downsize sails. It made no difference as the wind was just too strong and only 2 in the fleet finished. Race 3 was abandoned.
However, the Techno Plus fleet proved they were worthy of sailing an 8.5 and finished all 3 races.
Max van der Zalm from New Zealand with Australian Alex Halank hot on his heels managed to win 2 out of the 3. Alex won the last race showing the battle amongst the 2 of them is not over yet, Max still leading with 5 points after 6 races.
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“Today was really good, the wind picked up by the last race and I ended up winning a race which was good,” Alex said. “The close racing with Max from New Zealand was really good today, we have been within 20 seconds of each other at the finish so nice and close. And then the wind picked up across all three race courses producing some epic wipe-outs. There were no wipe-outs for me which may have given me a bit of an edge but a couple of people were not ready for the wind when it did pick up,” Alex said.
Kiwi, Veerle ten Have is leading the female fleet in the Bic Plus with Queenslander and 2017 Australian Youth Worlds representative, Hailey Lea building momentum to handle the heavier breeze.
“It was really tricky stuff today especially with me being underweight for the 8.5, but it was really fun getting around the top mark and slamming it downwind, hectic stuff,” Hailey said.