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

Stars

For the Stars down in the Weymouth Bay South course (due east of Portland Harbour) it was a tricky day, particularly with the wind against tide conditions making for short beats and long runs. After one false start there was a black flag start which the Germans and Greeks fell to.
On the first beat it was a case of everyone head left with Poland's Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki rounding the top mark first ahead of Sweden's Freddie Loof and Max Salminen with the Brits Percy and Simpson third.

The Brits pulled into the lead on the run but with the Poles regaining it coming into the leeward gate with Loof/Salminen third. Robert Scheidt/Bruno Prada made gains on the second beat to pull up to third behind the Brits rounding the top mark. Down the final run it was neck and neck between the Brits, Poles and Brazilians and it was a case of who could surf the breeze. This proved to be the Brits who edging in front three quarters of the way down to take the bullet.

As Andrew Simpson described it: “In the last 200m we got a nice couple of waves and in the split between the Brazilians and the Poles we got a nice little gap – it was weird how much you can gain with one little wave. We were very pleased with that.”

Race two and with the left still paying it was Danes Michael Hestbaek and Claus Olesen who led around the top mark from the Poles and Swedes with Percy and Simpson holding fourth. The Danes were reeled in by Loof and Salminen and the Brazilians on the run but not overtaken with the Brits rounding the leeward gate fourth.

Up the second beat the Irish, Peter O'Leary and David Burrows, joined the front runners but it was the Swedes who rounded the second top mark in front of the Danes with Percy and Simpson up to third ahead of Brazil.

Loof and Salminen extended down the run as the Brits and Danes fought it out for second with Percy and Simpson just nosing in front on the approach to the line.

“It was a good day today,” said Andrew Simpson. “Fantastic conditions here in Weymouth. Very British conditions – 15 knots of breeze, nice waves and really good fun sailing. We really feel lucky to be doing the Olympics and racing such good sailors. It is really exciting and nervous excitement when you are racing around and you make mistakes and you have to catch up back up and you do something good and you get ahead.

“Downwind our speed seems okay and our upwind speed doesn’t seem so bad. We didn’t start that well. We were being quite cautious on the starts – there was a lot of tide pushing us over the line, so we were being a bit more defensive than normal. Generally our all round speed is great.”

Robert Scheidt also enjoyed the sailing conditions and said that the Star racing in Weymouth is the best he has experienced, even though he and Bruno Prada didn’t have the best day. “It wasn’t bad but we didn’t sail our best today. We missed some opportunities and didn’t have good first beatsIain and Bart sailed really well again and the Swedish. So one more day before the medal race - we hopefully we can sail well tomorrow. We’ll keep fighting.”

Norwegians Eivind Melleby and Petter Morland Pedersen had an okay day with an 8-4. “We had two good starts and went to the left side which we thought was paying a bit more than it actually did,” said Melleby. “Today was a bit difficult because the waves were a lot bigger than the wind behind Portland and there was not too much wind in fact, it was about 15 knots, sometimes less. So it was really marginal to get surfs or not and that made a huge difference. On a few of the runs we didn’t get the boat going but sometimes we did.”

Melleby added that they weren’t particularly enjoying the conditions, particularly the wave state. “The waves are alright but the problem is the skewed-ness of them, because the swell is rolling around the island and being skewed on the course and it is hard to get the boat sailing in the right manner. But it is alright - there is a pretty good breeze.”

Norwegians have been suffering a little since Petter Morland Pedersen got sick earlier in the week. “We’ve lost contact with the three leaders, but if we can do a good day tomorrow we will be in striking distance for the medal race.”

The Kiwis scored a 9-8 today moving them up to 7th overall. “We are close to fourth, but I think the top three might have just got away. I think it has been pretty much 15 knots or above the whole day, which isn’t our ideal. The World Cup regattas like Palma which we were good at and the Worlds it wasn’t light but it was a bit lighter, a bit more tactical than pure grunt.

“Today it was easy to get over the layline early, because there was so much current which meant that everyone got to the top mark even more together than normal. At one point there was 13-16 boats trying to round the top mark at the same time!

“It was a hard day today because the wind was coming down in bands and one minute you’d be second or fourth and the next minute you might be 10th or 12th. As normal the Stars are all as close as.”

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

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