Ireland's Paris Olympics men's skiff pairing Robert Dickson (HYC) and Sean Waddilove (SSC) maintained their second position after Monday’s three races on the Frioul course, the most westerly of the four-race areas.
Light winds again caused problems for the race committee, but they managed to complete all three races in a south-veering south-south-west breeze that hardly ever exceeded 7 knots.
The Irish pairing recovered from a 7th at mark 1 in race 4 to finish in 4th place, behind Poland, Uruguay and France, with overnight leaders New Zealand in 8th place.
Race 5 saw a ding-dong battle with the Swiss for 2nd place, which was won by the Irish team, while New Zealand led from Mark 1 to the finish.
Waddilove and Dickson are on song in these conditions
Race 6 was a wire-to-wire win again for the Kiwis, the Irish boys unable to improve on a 1st mark rounding of 8th place. Update at 7 pm: IRL were disqualified from race 6 after protest.
In the overall standings after six races, the Irish men (19pts) trail New Zealand (14pts) by 5 points but have a margin of 9 points over third-placed Spain (28pts).
After they completed all three races Waddilove said: “It was a very good day on the water again. Similar conditions to yesterday; didn't get as much breeze as we'd hoped for abroad and we're managing very well and happy to come away without any big discards yet.
The Olympics is kind of a special regatta, there's a lot of hype around it and how you deal with that mentally plays a massive part in the results you get. I think in every games there is a few surprises with people who've performed very well up to the games and don't perform at the games, so you have to take the opportunities when you see them.”
Dickson added: “We're only half way through the series plus a medal race to come, so not even half way through so a lot more racing to go, but obviously, it's great to get half way through and be in second place and have got that buffer of not really getting any big results. We're prepared for anything and it's meant to be a little bit windier tomorrow, and it could be a bit off the shore so it'll be an interesting day. It feels great to be doing so well and we're happy.”
The updated forecast predicts continued light south to south-westerly winds until the end of the 49er regatta. Waddilove and Dickson are on song in these conditions and will seek to maintain the consistency that has them in a podium position.
The 49ers have a further six series races, three on Tuesday and three on Wednesday, after which the top ten teams compete in the medal Race on Thursday morning.
Results are here (subject to protest)
Explainer
Medals for the Men’s Skiff (49er will be decided by the cumulative results of the 20-strong fleet over 12 races. The boat with the lowest total will rank first.
Athletes will be able to discard their worst finishing position after they’ve completed three races.
At the end of the Opening Series, the top ten boats in the fleet will qualify for the Medal Race, which is worth double points.
The score in the Medal Race cannot be discarded. The crew with the smallest overall points total will win gold.