It was another successful day for the Americans yesterday (9 September), winning two out of their three races. Nick Scandone and Maureen McKinnon-Tucker are leading in the SKUD-18 two person keelboat class. John Ruf is in second place in the 2.4m, only one point shy of the leader – Canada.

Britain’s Paralympic sailors, however, will be looking for an upturn in fortunes. Today is a rest day for competitors, but the six Brits – currently lying in sixth, seventh and seventh in the three classes – will look to regroup ahead of the restart of racing on Thursday.

Niki Birrell and Alex Rickham are the highest placed Britons, lying sixth in the SKUD-18 class. The pair sit on 22 points overall (USA leaders have a total of five). Helena Lucas (pictured) picked up the best British race score yesterday, finishing third in her final 2.4m race of the day, moving through the fleet from seventh at the first mark rounding. Lucas is placed seventh overall also on 22 points. Canadian Paul Tingley maintains his first position on nine points.

John Robertson, Stephen Thomas and Hannah Stodel in the Sonar class grappled back from 11th in their opening race to eventually take sixth, but they struggled to make an impact on the fleet in the follow up scoring a subsequently discarded 10th.

A fifth in their final outing of the day also puts them in seventh position overall on 23 points, with French trio Bruno Jourdren, Herve Larhant and Nicolas Vimont-Vicary leading the class on eight.

RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park said: “Generally across all the fleets we have not been starting well enough and the sailors need to be a bit more assertive in their sailing and more confident in making good starts.

“Everyone is going to use the opportunity of the lay day tomorrow to get some training time in and reinforce the basics. There are still six races left and plenty of opportunities for them to force their way into the running for the medals.”

For full results click here .