Light winds hampered racing on day four of the French Olympic Sailing Week (23-28 April) in Hyeres, but British sailors managed to hold on to five top three slots in spite of the fickle conditions.
Finn sailor Ed Wright showed his ability to adjust to all wind conditions, posting another bullet his third from seven races in the 3-7 knot breeze today. The 28-year-old from Rugby, who won bronze at the Hyeres event last year, now has a commanding 19 point lead over the rest of the Finn fleet, heading in to the last two days of racing in Hyeres.
Scot Mark Andrews continues to push for a place in the Finn s final medal race on Friday, improving one place to 12th overall.
Skandia Team GBR now boasts two boats in the top three of the Yngling fleet Annie Lush and Lucy Macgregor, with their American helm Nancy Haberland, took a bullet in the only race of the day to push them up to the bronze medal position, while Sarah Ayton s team of Sarah Webb and Emma Rawlinson managed to hold on to their second place in spite of a 19th, subsequently discarded, from today s race.
Helena Lucas, defending the 2.4mR Paralympic class title, was disappointed with her fourth place finish from today s race, posted after mistakenly thinking she had a premature start.
Unfortunately at the start I was really close to the port end I heard the guy at the port end call out GBR and there was an individual recall so I went back thinking it was me, and it turned out it wasn t!
I managed to pull myself up to fourth and was pretty close for second I was having a battle with two boats down the final run but couldn t quite manage to sneak through.
It s looking a bit tricky now to win the regatta unless Thierry has a really bad three races, Lucas continued. It d be good to just go out and get a couple more bullets, win a couple more races. He might have a bit of bad luck, which would be quite good you never know. Anything can happen, so I think it s a case of keep the spirits up and try and win the remaining three races.
Lucas remains in the silver medal position, five points behind Dutchman Thierry Schmitter.
It s close at the top of the 49er gold fleet a tenth from today s race for Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes sees them slip from first to third, but the Exmouth duo are on equal points with the second placed German pairing, and are just two points from first.
We d been sat on the shore for about four hours before we got to go out, so that doesn t help things when you re ready to go at midday and end up going out about 4 o clock, Morrison explained.
It was quite a light wind race we didn t have the best of starts and we were set up kind of expecting the wind to increase a little bit, which was a bit of a misjudgement, but we hung in there. Hopefully we ll pull it out the bag tomorrow.
A fourth for Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks sees them overtake Paul Campbell James and Mark Asquith as the second placed British boat in the 49er fleet. The Olympic bronze medallists move up to sixth, with Campbell James and Asquith holding on to their seventh place.
Paul Goodison had a better day on the water following his retirement on day two and yesterday s black flag he posted a 3,2, from today s two races in the Laser class to push him back up to 17th from 24th overnight , while Princess Sofia winners Christina Bassadone-Saskia Clark have dropped to seventh from their second place overnight in the women's 470 class, although just three points separate them from the third placed boat.
It was a frustrating day in the light winds for Brits in all other classes particularly for the RS:X windsurfers who were sent out on the water only for racing to be eventually called off for them for the day.
Image Richard Langdon/Skandia Team GBR