Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush endured their toughest day at the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 European Championships in Eckernförde, Germany, yet still carried the overall lead into tonight's medal series.
The reigning world champions posted finishes of 15th, 10th and eighth across the final three gold fleet races, held once again in light and unpredictable conditions. It was not the performance they were after, but it was enough to preserve an eight-point buffer over Britain's James Grummett and Rhos Hawes.
"It was a tricky day today," said Lee Rush. "We had three more races in light winds again. Lots of people had an up-and-down day, and ours wasn't our finest performance. The first race was tough, we were right near the back of the fleet. The second one was a bit better and the third a little better again. We struggled with a couple of things and didn't quite execute the way we wanted to, but we're still in an OK position heading into tomorrow."
Menzies was measured but upbeat. "We're happy to go into medal race day in the lead. It's all going to be very close again. Anything can happen with the new format, and it's going to be good fun."
The championship's new medal series format compresses points before racing begins, capping the leading crew's maximum advantage at nine points. Two medal races remain, and every podium position is still wide open.
Fellow Kiwis Mattias Coutts and Oscar Gunn will also be in the mix. They slipped from third to fifth after scores of 16th, a discarded 17th and 11th, but sit just eight points behind Poland's Mikołaj Staniul and Jakub Sztorch in third, leaving a medal well within reach.
Micah Wilkinson and Kate Stewart had one of the day's better results in the Nacra 17 fleet, taking their first race win of the regatta and climbing to sixth overall.
In the 49erFX, Nicola and Rebecca Hume concluded their regatta in 46th overall.
Light winds shut down racing in the 49er silver fleet. Sean and Rowan Kensington finished 33rd overall in their first international campaign in the class, while Francesco Kayrouz and Hamish McLaren placed 50th in the 93-boat fleet.
