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

49er

After their 4-2 yesterday, the result of Brits Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes were heading in the right direction, but today in the windward-leewards on the Harbour course they excelled, posting two bullets, bringing them up to the silver spot, 11 points adrift of the dominant Aussies Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen.

Conditions were a little brisker than yesterday with the wind at times into the high teens from the SSW and less shifty than the sailors had seen all week.

Starting in the middle of the line the Brits went half way to the left before tacking in to lead around the top mark ahead of Finland's Lauri Lehtinen and Kalle Bask with Bermuda's Jesse and Alex Kirkland third with the Aussies down the pan in 17th. The top three remained the same at the leeward gate, but on the next beat Germans Tobias Schadewaldt and Hannes Baumann pulled up to third ahead of Spain's Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez. On the final run the Spanish round the world sailors pulled up to third. At the finish the Brits managed to fend off an attack from the Finns in turn finishing 28 seconds in front of Martinez/Fernandez.

In race two the Brits employed a similar strategy but went slightly further out towards the port layline before tacking to squeeze around the weather mark first on this occasion ahead of Croats Pavle Kostov and Petar Cupac with the Finns in third. The Brits arrived at the leeward gate just ahead of the Finns but the Finns made a better job of the next beat and were ahead at the second top mark rounding. It wasn't until the next beat that Britain regained the lead, Morrison and Rhodes once again playing the left ahead of the Finns with Sweden's Jonas von Geijer and Niclas Düring pulling up to third - positions which held to the finish.

“We executed the starts a lot better today,” said Morrison about what they had done differently. “They were safe starts, no risk, middle of the line, but we just did a good job. We were confident in our transits. We did good pre-race checks of the line and we were confident enough to attack it and – I don’t know why - the fleet wasn’t so aggressive on the start line today. It meant it was easier to do things accurately, whereas when the fleet is high on the line and you can’t see your transits it is easy to get a bit more nervous. Today we didn’t make too many mistakes. We let the Finnish guy pass us for a while, but then he had a little error - but that is what 49er sailing is like.

“Compared to when you come to winning a race, if you are trying to pull up through the fleet there are a lot more decision. Today - great as it was, it was a pretty boring race. Yesterday when we had to come through from 15th to fourth it is really exciting and you are making decisions the time. When you are out in front it is easier.”

Despite being pleased with today’s performance Morrison was trying to keep a lid on it. “We can feel happy with ourselves until dinner tonight and then we need to get back into reality. We’ve got 8 races left. The time to celebrate will be next Wednesday.”

Outteridge and Jensen didn’t have such a fabulous day. On the first race they were coming in from the left when they clipped the Croatian boat’s tiller extension as they were ducking them and were forced to do a turn. This dropped them to the back of the pack and they spent the race fighting their way back up to finish 10th.

In the second race Outteridge said they again didn’t get the best of starts and they were unable to pick good lanes and lost out in a couple of crosses coming in from the left, again leaving them in the teens. “It is extremely tight racing on the harbour and that is how it happens sometimes. We are happy we were moving forwards through the fleet after the first mark and that is what is going to win the event.”
Despite having a 9 points lead Outteridge acknowledge that this meant nothing at this stage. “That is one bad race.”

“We are on the Nothe course tomorrow and it is going to be a big day with three races on a shifty course. Typically we sail pretty well there, we just need to execute what we’ve been trying to do all week.”

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

Results