London 2012 day 3: Better day for the Brits

Percy extends as Ben pulls up as Ireland's Annalise Murphy gets four straight bullets

Star

Along with the Finns, the Stars moved to the Weymouth Bay South course today where the wind was puffy and unstable, coming from the southwest over the large lump that is Portland.

In today’s first race, Kiwis Hamish Pepper and Jim Turner started down by the pin with the Greeks Amilios Papathanasiou and Antonis Tsotrasas, while Percy/Simpson and the Brazilians Robert Scheidt/Bruno Prada set off mid-line. These four led up the beat hitting the left hard with the Brazilians leading around the top mark with the Kiwis and Brits close behind. Percy and Simpson overhauled their Brazilian rivals early in the run and extended away to round the leeward gate 50 seconds in front. From there they maintained a loose cover over the Brazilians up the beat and once again extended down the run to the finish – the first bullet for the Brits.

In race two it was Poland’s Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki who lead around the top mark, followed by Norway’s Eivind Melleby and Petter Morland Pedersen and Percy/Simpson with the Brazilians in sixth. The Norwegians overhauled the Poles down the run with Scheidt/Prada up to third. But on the second beat, the Poles regained the lead while the Brits were on a charge and moving up to second, rounding the top mark 5 seconds behind with Sweden’s Freddie Loof and Max Salminen third and the Brazilians fourth.

Down the final run Percy and Simpson got into the lead, but the Brazilians managed to make a charge into the finish line, pipping the Brits at the post to win by 8 seconds, as Percy and Simpson managed to just stay bow forward on the Swedes.

“It was a good day today,” said Percy. “Every place counts, so we were disappointed to lose Robert on the last run. It is a lot of fun racing especially with guys like Robert and Freddie sailing so well. It is a proper battle all the way around with those guys in that kind of wind strength – it’s cool.”

“The Star’s is a funny boat, it is so tweaky you have to play with things to find your mode. You like to think you have good settings, but each day is slightly different and you have to change things to find speed through the day, so we can’t really predict too much. But we do enjoy the downwind when the breeze is up a little bit, like the first run today.”

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