Local Sailor Going Like The Wind

Posted Aug 11, 2008 by Bill Ward

Updated Aug 11, 2008 at 02:38 PM

Clearwater’s Zach Railey continues to turn in strong performances sailing in the Finn class at the Olympics in Qingdao (pronunced shin-dow), China.

In the second day of competition Monday, Riley reamined in second place thanks to some consistent sailing. He was seventh and eighth Monday and although that doesn’t sound impressive, most of his competition likely would have traded him those scores because much of the field sailed one good and one terrible race.

Defending Olympic champion Ben Ainslie, nicknamed “The Man” in Finn Class and unbeaten since 2004, has passed Railey and now sits in first place but he holds a slim one-pojnt lead. The two men are sailing very different regattas. Ainslie has taken three firsts but finished 10th in two races. Railey has posted finishes of 2, 5, 2, 2, 7, and 8.

“Today was hard. There were 20 degree shifts and you didn’t know they were coming,” Railey said. “In these conditions, I’ll take a seven, eight all day.”

With four races remaining, Ainslie leads 17-18 while France’s Guillaume Florent is third with 26 points. Lasers return to action Wednesday with two races scheduled.

In the Men’s RS:X, Tampa’s Ben Barger is in 22nd place after two races in the 35-board fleet.