In the fresh Meltemi wind still blowing from the north six classes took to the water on day three of the Pre-Olympic regatta yesterday in Athens. However, the day was not without drama for Team GBR. Olympic gold medallist Iain Percy and crew Steve Mitchell were forced to retire from the first race and miss the second race due to breaking their mast on the last leg of the morning’s race.

After their return to the start, having been recalled, Percy and Mitchell spent the race playing playing catch up. They managed to work their way back up into the top 10 but had to give up the game when top section of the rig came tumbling down.

Percy explained: “We were sailing the last downwind leg into the finish and we were working the boat to try and make up those extra places, unfortunately we were a bit too heavy handed and managed to snap the top section of the mast as we tried to work the boat. It was a simple operator error on our behalf but we are hoping to get it fixed during our lay day and be back on the water on Sunday.”

Difficult conditions were again experienced on the 49er course, with winds ranging from 6-16 knots, but the British pairing of Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith managed to hold on to their top three overall result. At the end of the third day’s racing they are lying in third place overall after scoring a 15 and a fifth place. Chris Nicholson and Gary Boyd of Australia lead the class from the Italian pairing of Piero Sibelo and Gianfranco Sibelo.

Asquith explained their day: “It was certainly another tricky day, much the same as the previous day really. We managed to sail the first beat of the course well in both races but got it together a bit better in the second race to finish fifth.”

In the 34-boat Laser class, which has the biggest entry list in Athens this week, Team GBR sailor Paul Goodison managed to continue to climb up the scoreboard. However, he could not match the form of the six times Laser world champion and double Olympic medallist, Brazilian Robert Scheidt, who scored a second and first, but he did manage a 13th and a second which moved him up into fourth place overall. Scheidt currently leads the class from Daniel Birgmark of Sweden.

Ten of the 11 Olympic disciplines will be competing today with only the Star class having a lay day. The event concludes on the 28 August.

Results (after day 3)

Finn – Lay day

1, Ben Ainslie, GBR (2,6,1,1) 10 pts

2, Sebastien Godefroid, BEL (11,7,2,3) 23 pts

3, Karlo Kuret, CRO (5,5,7,9) 26 pts

49er

1, Chris Nicholson/Gary Boyd, AUS (3,4,(18),1,11,1) 20 pts

2, Piero Sibelo/Gianfranco Sibelo, ITA (2,6,6,4,4,(15)) 22 pts

3, Paul Brotherton/Mark Asquith, GBR (10,2,7,2,(15),5) 26 pts

Star

1, Peter Bromby/Lee White, BER (6,1,3,4,(10),1) 15 pts

2, Torben Grael/Marcelo Ferreira, BRA ((12),2,1,7,1,7) 30 pts

3, Paul Cayard/Philip Trinter, USA ((10),3,10,1,3,4) 21 pts

GBR

13, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell (1,4,17,6,(DNF),DNS) 47 pts

Yngling – Lay day

1, Ruslana Taran/Svitlana Matevusheva/Ganna Kalinina, UKR (1,2,6,5) 14 pts

2, Hannah Swett/Joan Touchette/Melissa Purdy, USA (3,1,2,10) 16 pts

3, Kristin Wagner/Anna Hoell/Veronika Lochbrunner, GER (6,6,1,6) 19 pts

GBR

5, Shirley Robertson/Sarah Webb/Sarah Ayton (10,4,9,3) 26 pts

470 Women – Lay day

1, Susanne Ward/Michaela Ward, DEN (3,11,2,10) 26 pts

2, Sofia Bekatorou/Emilia Tsoulfa, GRE (1,3,OCS,2) 30 pts

3, Shelley Hesson/Linda Dickson, NZL (4,14,1,15) 34 pts

GBR

10, Christina Bassadone/Katherine Hopson (OCS,4,16,3) 47 pts

470 Men – Lay day

1, Johan Molund/Martin Andersson, SWE (4,7,3,10) 24 pts

2, Alvaro Marinho/Miguel Nunes, POR (1,4,9,11) 25 pts

3, Gideon Kliger/Ehud Gal, ISR (8,3,4,16) 31 pts

GBR

4, Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield (7,12,6,6) 31 pts

Laser

1, Robert Scheidt, BRA (15,4,2,1) 22 pts

2, Daniel Birgmark, SWE (1,8,12,3) 24 pts

3, Mate Arapov, CRO (8,6,3,7) 24 pts

GBR

4, Paul Goodison (6,9,13,2) 30 pts

Mistral Men

1, Joeri Van Dihk, NED (2,2,8,8) 20 pts

2, Gal Fridman, ISR (11,3,2,4) 20 pts

3, Yuanguo Zhou, CHN (6,7,1,9) 23 pts

GBR

13, Nick Dempsey (17,9,14,12) 52 pts

Mistral Women

1, Alessandra Sensini, ITA (1,2,1) 4 pts

2, Faustine Merret, FRA (4,4,2) 10 pts

3, Lee Lai Shan, HKG (2,3,6) 11 pts

GBR

15, Natasha Sturges (9,12,(OCS)) 43 pts

Europe

1, Sarah Macky, NZL (1,13,1,6) 21 pts

2, Lenka Smidova, CZE (4,7,7,3) 21 pts

3, Carolijn Brouwer, NED (9,3,16,4) 32 pts

GBR

18, Andrea Brewster (13,19,10,24) 66 pts

Tornado

1, Darren Bundock/John Forbes, AUS (1,1,3,4) 9 pts

2, Roman Hagara/Hans-Peter Steinacher, AUT (3,3,2,10) 18 pts

3, Fernando Echavarri/Anton Paz, ESP (5,4,7,2) 18 pts

GBR

9, Leigh McMillan/Mark Bulkeley (6,14,10,6) 36 pts