Breezy conditions produced a demanding afternoon of four-up fleet racing, with most of the fleet recording a mixed set of results across the day's four races.
New Zealand's Black Foils claimed third overall, built on a strong run of starts through the final three fleet races after a difficult opener that saw them finish eleventh. From there, they strung together results of second, sixth and third to move into contention. That last third-place finish came ahead of Germany to separate the two teams on countback, with both sides level on 22 points.
The day brought its share of setbacks. A penalty during a close call with Australia in the opening race cost the team early, while a button issue in the third race proved damaging at the worst possible moment, sending the boat off the foils while they led approaching the opening mark before they slipped back to the middle of the fleet.
At the head of the leaderboard, Denmark's Rockwool Racing led the event on 32 points, with Emirates Great Britain just behind on 31.
Black Foils Co-CEO and Driver Peter Burling said there were a lot of positives to take from the day.
"We will definitely kick ourselves looking back at the first start. I think we had a really good day starting, but it could have been good starts in all four. In that first one we had a great gap through the top end and then just kind of got caught up with Denmark and ended up bit too high. But overall we are really pleased with the way our starting has been going. I think we've been doing some really good starts since Sassnitz, which is a massive credit to the group pushing that."
Burling also noted the team had faced some challenging moments despite those strong starts.
"It felt like we also got super unlucky at times today. With the penalty in the first run of the first race, we felt Tom (Slingsby) got super lucky not to get it. Then a stuck button in the third race with a massive lead at the first mark was tough as well, but I think the team did a good job fighting back and we are right in the hunt for tomorrow."
Burling added that the conditions made for exciting racing.
"The breeze was just windy enough. You could actually foil and then there was plenty of thrust so when you made a little mistake, you could kind of recover from that, so we were really enjoying the conditions. It felt like we were sailing the boat really well. When we were around other boats, we were always kind of moving forward and we felt really comfortable. We are looking forward to tomorrow."
