2017 - 2018 420 World Championships, Perth, Australia

Race day 2 at the 2017 420 World Championships hosted at Fremantle Sailing Club, Australia and all change in the weather as the breeze eased and the wave action was a lot more manageable.

Spain's Maria and Pilar Caba set the standard in today's Ladies fleet, racking up a 1,2 scorecard. Australian champions Laura Harding and Eleanor Grimshaw were much more relaxed in today's conditions, sailing consistently for consecutive third placings. At this early stage of the regatta, Nia Jerwood and Monique de Vries hold the lead by a single point from the Spanish partnersihp, with just one point between each of the Spanish team and then Harding and Grimshaw.

Maria Pilar commented after today's race, "Today the first race was twelve knots and it was our wind. So we managed to do a good start and at the end we finished first. In the second one the wind was about 15 knots. The Australian girls did really well and we fought with them and in the end we managed to place second."

The Under 17 fleet should have been a walk in the park for the Spanish crew of Martin Wizner and Pedro Ameneiro, who finished first and second in their two races, but unfortunately were disqualified from their first race after crossing the start line early. The costly mistake saw them slip to seventh on the points table after four races. Italians Tomasso Cilli and Bruno Mantero move to the top of the table after winning race 4 today, just clear of the German crew of Florian and Maximilian Buscher. Reigning U17 European and Junior European Champions, Demetrio Sposato and Gabriele Centrone of Italy share points with the Buscher boys and just behind them is a third Italian crew of Tomasso Salvetta and Giovanni Sandrini. There is enormous talent in this young fleet as boats were constantly challenged and trading places.

The Open fleets, having lost a race yesterday, are now back on track, completing three races this afternoon. Italians Edouardo Ferraro and Francesco Orlando were dominant in the yellow fleet today. With the breeze around 12 knots at the start, they posted a second place but as the breeze freshened to 15 and later 18 knots, they were unbeatable and racked up two first places which takes them to a share of the lead with Chris Charlwood and Josh Dawson, who sailed in the blue fleet scoring a third, a first and a second. Three Spanish crews follow the Italians and Australians, highlighting the enormous depth in the ever talented Spanish 420 fleet.

The weather forecast for tomorrow might make the heavy weather specialists happy. Strong southerlies will once again take conditions to near the limit for the 420 class, generating much higher waves than seen on day 2.

Weather for Sunday's race day 3 are forecast to be somewhat lighter, so competition will be interesting as different race track specialists come to the fore.