The National Yacht Club's Will Byrne and Howth's sailmaker Shane Hughes (from North Sails Ireland) are racing on Mathilde in the Club Swan 50 division, one of the four racing classes at the Swan One Design World Championships in France.

Fitful easterlies rewrote the Swan class leaderboards in St Tropez with ClubSwan36 led by G Spot; ClubSwan42 - Natalia; Swan45 - From Now On and ClubSwan50 led by Hatari.

Sitting in fourth place, four points off the podium and six off the lead, it is all very close and, Dun Laoghaire's Byrne says there's "lots to play for" going into the final day of racing today. 

The Gulf of Saint Tropez kept the surprises coming for the third day of the Swan One Design Worlds, with the wind swinging right round to the east again.

Signs of a good sailing breeze early on were scuppered as the winds began to drop. But there was still time to get all the classes away for one good race under blue skies.

It proved a day for upsets – the special magic of day three has struck. Leaders in every class put in mid-order finishes in the day’s race, giving hope to those snapping at their heels. It largely came down to whether the boats chose to go left or right off the start. 

Club Swan 50 racing in Saint Tropez Photo: Studio Borlenghi

Howth Yacht Club sailors Dylan Gannon and Luke Malcolm are lying seventh overall after four races sailed on Ross Warburton’s Club Swan 50 Perhonen at this week's Swan Copa Del Rey Mapfre at Palma, Spain. 

As you would expect at a Swan Regatta, there's an endless list of big crew names in attendance, and in particular, tacticians are a who's who of America's Cup and Olympic sailing in the 16-boat Swan 50 fleet, including sailors from the Grand Prix circuits and Volvo Ocean Races too.

In all, seven Irish sailors are in action this week, with the regatta running until Saturday. Six are racing in the Swan 50s with Julie Tingle racing in the Swan 36 division.

On the Bay of Palma, it was one of Spain’s most decorated Olympic heroes, Iker Martinez, who guided Andrea Masi’s Italian flagged ClubSwan 50 Ulika to the best scores of the day, a first and second from the hot fleet which includes Olympic aces such as Jochen Schumann (ONEGroup) and Tom Slingsby (Earlybird).

King Philip VI rarely misses a regatta and this year is no exception. The Spanish monarch competes on ORC 1 division of the regatta on Aifos500

HYC's Gannon is back sailing with his regular team (downwind trim) on Perhonen, and clubmate Malcolm is making his Swan 50 debut as a bowman.

Fresh from success in the J/80s in Denmark, North Sails Ireland sailmaker Shane Hughes is back with his regular team (running the boat) on Mathilde. The National Yacht Club's Will Byrne from Dublin Bay is running the mid-bow on Mathilde, currently lying 13th at the halfway point of the regatta. 

Swan 50 racing in the Bay of Palma Photo: Ricardo Pinto

Cork Harbour native Tom McWilliam is a headsail trimmer on the Utekha and is joined by Ireland's Volvo Round the World champion Justin Slattery. 

Full crew lists are here. Full results here