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

RS:X Men

The RS:X were racing inside Portland Harbour where there were two general recalls before the fleet got away on the third attempt under black flag with the Columbian, US, Czech and Israeli sailors nailed.

At the top mark it as Hungary's Aron Gadorfalvi who rounded first ahead of overall leader Dorian Van Rijsselberge (NED) with German hope Toni Wilhelm third and Nick Dempsey buried in 18th.

Up the second beat the Dutchman headed out to the right with the majority of the fleet and edged in front with Wilhelm second and Canada's Zachary Plavsic up to third. Ultimately the Dutchman from there extended away to finish 29 seconds ahead of the German with China's Aichen Wang claiming third and Nick Dempsey coming home a disappointing 10th. However the British sailboarder put this right by blitzing the second race, leading from start to finish coming home ahead of Van Rijsselberge and Polnd’s Przemyslaw Miarczynski. This has pulled the Brit up to fourth within two points of second.

“It was a nightmare first race,” said Dempsey, examining his toes when he came ashore. “The wind dropped and shifted about 20 degrees and I made a bit of a mess of the first leg.”

Dempsey was also unhappy with the lines that were being set. “As the wind shifted left, they keep laying these port-biased lines which are just a nightmare, so it went really port-biased and the wind dropped - it makes it impossible to get off the start line, so a lot of people were tacking out and I missed a couple of opportunities up that beat and didn’t really take any risks and paid the price. And it was all catch-up again.”

In the second Dempsey said it was simple – he just got off the start, plus the wind had picked up a little. “A good start and I am away. Then I am pretty happy just to sail away from people. I am quick. I am rapid downwind. That was really nice and good.”

The charismatic Van Rijsselberge, who has a shaved head for this regatta, thought both races were tricky on the Harbour course. In the first race he had to play catch up. “I got caught up with the Italian guy on the start line who was pinching a bit too much, so I had to make some quick decisions and tacked over and waited for a little gap and punched out pretty well.”

The Dutchman seems very accomplished at catching up. “It is a bit of everything: You have to try not to get caught up in too much traffic. You can see it in other classes. You want to have some clear breeze and then you have more of a chance to end up in the front.”

Going to into the lay day tomorrow tomorrow Van Rijsselberge joked he was “going to get hammered tonight and go crazy and sleep for the whole day, otherwise I’m going to be bored!”

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

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