The stage is set for an action-packed final weekend of Sailing World Cup racing in Weymouth and Portland, as further weather delays on Friday (10 June) ramp up the intensity for the final two days of competition.
The 2012 sailing venue was beset by light winds once again on the third day of the regatta, and with just one more qualifying day left to book into Sunday’s top ten medal race positions, race officials will be keen to make the best of the improved wind forecast with a full schedule on Saturday.
British Sailing Team crews hold the yellow leaders’ bibs in four events heading in to the final weekend, with seven other teams also holding top three positions with two days to go.
The 49er fleet enjoyed the best of the day’s racing, with Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign picking up a race win and a second to hand them the overall lead.
The Rio-bound duo are five points ahead of Poland’s Lukasz Przybytek-Pawel Kolodzinski, making the best of the testing light wind conditions.
“It was tricky out there, light and we just get seemed to get into the rhythm, had some good starts and came through,” Fletcher explained.
“We have sailed well for the last two days but anything can happen tomorrow, four races are scheduled plus the medal race, so if we just crack on and carry on sailing as we are we will be looking in good shape come the end of the regatta.”
“It was pretty up and down on pressure, very light,” added Sign of Friday’s conditions.
“For a crew at the front of your playpen you are kind of ‘creaky knees’ all day. It’s just about trying to keep the boat going through the water all the time, lots of communication between us two and just trying to keep the boat going when it’s down speed.”
“There were very small margins round the race course, so if you just got a lucky break you got out in front. Basically if you’re fifth or tenth, people are so close behind that anything can happen to them, so they are up there but then you need to keep positioning yourself well and punching through.”
Luke Patience-Chris Grube advanced to the top spot thanks to a race win in the 470 Men’s event, but Patience knows it’s far from over in the closely contested double-handed fleet.
“Because we have missed a lot of races this week already it’s going to be really low point scoring so I can only imagine that the boats going into the medal race the following day it will all be dead tight.
“As ever with our class, with the calibre of our fleet, it’s always low scoring and it’s always very tight so if we are in with a shout of being able to win after tomorrow that will be great and I’m sure the medal race will put a spanner in the mix.”
After just six months in the boat together, the duo are looking at fine-tuning their racing skills this week at what is their final showdown before the Rio Games.
“I think we are just making the most of the opportunity to be honest,” Grube added. “We’ve had very few opportunities to race together. We’ve had plenty of time training in Rio so we just need to make the most of these opportunities to go racing.”
Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre nudged ahead of teammates Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark after the sole race of the day in the 470 Women’s event, with just two points now separating the overall top three boats.
“Eilidh and I sailed pretty well today,” commented Weguelin, who’s back in the 470 class after a stint campaigning in the 49erFX.
“It’s nice to be racing in a tough fleet, we’ve got tough competition here. I’ve had a bit of a break from the 470 and Eilidh and I teamed back up in April so this is our second event back together again and things are going well.”
“I think the forecast will be a bit different tomorrow, I haven’t seen it recently but what I saw yesterday was slightly more wind than today. We will just go out and keep it simple, just execute some starts, which is what we are working on this week, and if we can do that then we should fall into the front of the fleet.”
There’s a British 1-2 also at the top of the Finn leaderboard, with Ben Cornish gaining a narrow advantage over World Champion and sparring partner Giles Scott.
Exmouth’s Cornish concluded the one race for the heavyweight in third place, with Scott in fourth, to gain a two point lead at the top of the standings.
“It’s nice to have a year of hard work pay off and start to see it all going in the right direction,” said Cornish of his performance so far.
“It was actually quite tricky conditions, with up and down wind, a little bit on and off.
“It came down to the last run actually, everyone was still in contention for a top five and I just managed to get ahead of two boats down the last run.”
“I think it’s going to come down to a really tight week on points and there is going to be a lot to gain or lose in the medal race,” Cornish concluded.
Izzy Hamilton picked up two second places from the RS:X Women’s windsurfing two races to sit in overall second, with teammate Emma Wilson in third, while Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves made the most of the one race of the day in the Nacra 17 multihull event, winning the race to take overall third. Nick Thompson’s fourth place in the early evening Laser race was enough to move him into overall third.
With no racing possible for the 49erFX fleet, Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth keep hold of third place, Tom Squires is poised just outside of the podium spots in fourth in the RS:X Men’s event, and Alison Young is edging up the Laser Radial standings in 15th overall.
Saturday’s racing schedule kicks off from 1100hrs, with four races for 49er, Nacra 17 and 49erFX fleets and three races for all others to book their final medal race berths.
Tickets for the Sailing World Cup Weymouth and Portland (8-12 June) – part of UK Sport’s #EveryRoadtoRio major events series – are available at
www.rya.org.uk/go/swcgb
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