Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes claimed Britain s only gold medal from the finals of the Princess Sofia Trophy on Good Friday, clinching victory in the fiercely contested 49er class by just one point.
Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson also picked up silver in the Yngling event for Skandia Team GBR, on what was another day of testing conditions for sailors in Palma Bay.
Heading into Friday s 49er final, European Champions Morrison and Rhodes had an 11 point buffer over the rest of the tightly bunched pack, with any of the top eight crews which included British sailors Paul Campbell James-Mark Asquith and Chris Draper-Simon Hiscocks capable of stealing a podium position.
The three British crews got off to a great start, but a 40 degree wind shift soon shook up the order amongst the fleet and left Morrison and Rhodes having to fight to keep gold within their grasp. A late surge saw them finish the medal race in sixth place, which was enough to keep them one point ahead of Denmark s Peter and Soren Hansen in the overall standings.
It was a tricky race and the wind went a bit wacky but we hung on in there by the skin of our teeth! Morrison explained.
Although we were in a strong position heading into the medal race, with so many boats behind us on such close points all we could do was sail our own race, and that s what we did. We tried to stay relatively conservative and just kept trying to do the simple things right.
But while the world bronze medal-winning duo are pleased with their golden start to the European season, Morrison reckons the 49er fleet hasn t seen the best of them this week.
We re a bit surprised with the result, because we didn t really think we came here with the form to win! There are a lot of basic things we still need to work on and we feel there s still a huge amount we can improve on throughout the year.
An eighth in the medal race saw Paul Campbell James and Mark Asquith end the regatta in sixth place, while Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks finish in eighth place overall.
For Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson, their silver medal marks their third straight podium finish at a major multi-class regatta, adding to their silver at the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta in January, and bronze at their first event as a trio at the Skandia RYA Sail for Gold Regatta in October last year.
They were unable to get the better of the American boat, helmed by Sally Barkow, in today s medal race, but are brimming with confidence after their performance this week.
It has been a really tricky week for all of us, I think as the results for the whole team have shown, but we re really happy with our silver, Ayton explained.
The week has been a positive experience for us as a team, in particular the last part of the regatta which has generally been below six knots and is the range we have tended to underperform in in the past, so we ve been encouraged by that.
Shirley Robertson, Annie Lush and Lucy Macgregor finish their second ever Yngling event together in eighth place, while Skandia Team GBR s development squad sailors Victoria Rawlinson, Emma Rawlinson and Sue Monson end their regatta in tenth place after some promising displays this week.
Paul Goodison and Nick Dempsey were unable to hold on to their overnight positions of third in the Laser and RS:X men s events. Goodison fell foul of a wind shift in the Laser medal race to finish seventh overall, with Nick Thompson in ninth, while Dempsey crossed sixth in the medal race to end his regatta in fifth place.
Ed Wright was out of reach of the podium positions heading in to the Finn medal race, but put in a solid performance in the final race to cross in second and improve his final standing to seventh, while development squad sailors Luke Patience and Chris Grube finished a notable fifth in the 470 men s event, and Charlotte Dobson finished eighth in the Laser Radial class. Leigh McMillan and Will Howden finished sixth at the Tornado European Championships, which were being run in conjunction with the Princess Sofia Trophy.
There s no doubt it s been a difficult regatta, with changing, unpredictable conditions throughout the week, and the results not just of Skandia Team GBR but of some of the top performers from other nations bear this out, explained RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park.
That said, the conditions that we expect in China in 2008 are going to be just as difficult and unpredictable so we need to be prepared for that.
Park continued: We have seen some fantastic results from some of our development squad teams who are beginning to close the gap on our performance teams, and it may be that we see one or two upsets as the season progresses and we start to consider Olympic selection.