London 2012 day 5: Magnificent day for the Brits

As Morrison/Rhodes score twin bullets in the 49er, Patience/Bithell a 2-1 and Ben Ainslie gets back on track

470 Men

The 470 Men set sail into London 2012 today, first on the Nothe course in front of the paying spectators and then to the Weymouth Bay West course.

In the first race, a long four lap windward-leeward the left was paying out of the blocks and it was the Turkish brothers Deniz and Ates Cinar who hit the left hardest. But just inside them were the Austrians Matthias Schmid and Florian Reichsteaedter and Britain's Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell.

At the top mark the Austrians had pulled in front ahead of Spain's Onan Barreiros and Aaron Sarmiento with Aussie race favourites Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page holding third with the Brits fifth.

On the run the Belcher/Page pulled up to second rounding the gate alongside Swedes Anton Dahlberg and Sebastian Östling with the Brits sixth.

The left once again paid up the second beat with Patience and Bithell pulling up to second behind the Austrians with the Aussies third.And this is how it remained to the finish.

In race two out on Weymouth Bay, the right was paying early but as one of the first to come in from the left it was Patience and Bithell who pulled into the lead two thirds of the way up to lead round the top mark ahead of New Zealand's Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders and Greece's Kampo Kampouridis/Efstathios Papadopoulos.

After a reaching leg at the end of the next run it was Portugal's Álvaro Marinho and Miguel Nunes who were holding second, as the Brit extended away, with the Dutch Coster brothers in third. Up the next run the race one-winning Austrians were back in the mix, holding third behind the Portugese.

On the final run the Kiwis pulled up to third, but the bullet went to the Brits winning with a 31 seconds lead over Portugal.

Scottish helm Luke Patience described their first race: “The Austrians had a good first race – they won the start and the left hand side of the course, but we had a good conservative start out of the middle of the line and rounded the windward mark in a good position and picked a couple up from that.”

As to their being in first place after the opening day Patience said it felt surprisingly normal. “There have been so many years working to this point and me and Stuart have worked so hard for this. We thought it would be more nerve wracking but the only real difference is that the sail looks different because it says ‘GBR’ all over it and there is a massive clock on the committee boat counting down. At the end of the day we are on our home waters and we are racing 470s round a course for an hour, putting our hearts and souls into it and that feels normal, that’s our job.

“We have done a lot of hours training here. Weymouth is a tricky venue. Sometimes you find your rhythm and it clunks and it clicks and it feels easy, but someone in the same race who isn’t into the same rhythm might find it harder. There is no secret or magic - it is about finding your rhythm and letting that tick over for an hour long race. We found that rhythm today. We hope to do the same tomorrow, but the curved balls will be thrown at us all week and it will be a case of how we deal with it.”

Aussie favourites Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page had a strangely faltering opening day on waters where, as recently as June at Skandia Sail For Gold, they have proved so dominant. Today they made way too many errors (coach Victor Kovalenko will be having words) but their 3-9 today leaves them in a less than disastrous fourth place overall.

While their last OCS was back in 2010, in second race they were over early but fought back from behind to reach the top mark in fifth. However after the leeward gate just as they were hoisting their kite they fouled the Italian boat which the Aussies admitted in the heat of the moment they had fail to spot. “That was a pretty schoolboy error and it cost us quite dearly.,” recounted Page. “We had to drop the kite and do our turns Whether he was there or not, it doesn’t change the fact that we should have seen him.”

In addition to this they hit a mark.

“The positive thing from that day, is that although we weren’t happy with our performance, we didn’t kill ourselves with the results. It is just day one and there is a long way to go and there is another seven days of competition,” said Page. This was a better first day than they had at last year’s Test Event. “I was a little nervous this morning. We’ve worked four years for this and it is special to be here and fly our national colours.”

thedailysail’s number 2-ranked Croatian Sime Fantela, who sailed with Igor Marenic, found today’s racing hard. “They were long distance races! The organisers put in really long upwinds and especially in the first race, we had four rounds. We sailed well but we had some technical problems. Our barber hauler broke in the second one, so we lost 6-7 places. We tried to catch up and managed to get back to 13. We hope for a better result tomorrow.”

See today's reports here for the Finn, 470M, 49er, Star, Women's Match Racing and RS:X Men

Results