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The southwesterly breeze over the initial two days of competition at the ISAF Grade W 2008 Tornado World Championship has died away and a calm Hauraki Gulf meant no racing on day three.

The 51-boat fleet left the beach for the planned 13:00 start but were back ashore around an hour and a half later when the light breeze collapsed to next to nothing. A decision was made at 16:30 to abandon racing for the day and advise sailors that tomorrow's reserve day would be used to try and catch up.

A light and variable breeze is predicted in Auckland tomorrow, while looking further ahead wind from the north east is forecasted to fill in on Friday and increase for Saturday. The regatta concludes on Saturday.

With four races completed Yann GUICHARD and Alexandre GUYADER (FRA) hold the overall lead on 19 points, two ahead of Roland GAEBLER and Gunnar STRUCKMANN (GER) The Dutch crew of Mitch BOOTH and Pim NIEUWENHUIS lie third overall on 23 points. Only these top three crews have avoided a double-digit score so far. Lining up nicely in fourth overall are Canadians Oskar JOHANSSON and Kevin STITTLE. After a 21st in the opening races, scores of 1,3,1 have lifted them back up the leaderboard and put them in a strong position when the discard kicks in.

Defending World Champions Fernando ECHAVARRI and Anton PAZ (ESP) are in sixth, currently 17 points off the lead, whilst 2006 World title winners and the current world #1 crew, Darren BUNDOCK and Glenn ASHBY (AUS), are a further seven points back in eighth place overall.

Results - click here
Tornado World Championship - www.takapunaworlds.org