Despite a forecast of improved breeze on the Algarve for Thursday, the 91 boats competing in the 49er European Championship again faced fickle conditions as the event moves towards the final round at the weekend.
Ireland’s Robert Dickson with Sean Waddilove had a conservative day to finish 18th overall without incurring any high-scoring results.
The Dublin pair are leading Irish hopes of securing a place at the Paris 2024 Olympics in the men’s skiff event with just one nation place to be decided at this event and ten countries in the hunt.
On the current standings, Dickson and Waddilove lie fourth of the 10 nations in the chase though at least eight races remain in the full series, assuming the Irish crew continue into Gold fleet.
The conditions again proved extremely challenging with the very light breeze changing direction by up to 40 degrees in parts of the race course and total calm patches in others.
“Today was marginal conditions - again with barely enough wind to get races off but we still managed to get three races in,” said Dickson after racing ended in Vilamoura. “The rest of the week is going to be like this so we just have to learn every day and keep getting better.”
Ireland’s second crew featuring Cork’s Seafra Guilfoyle with Johnny Durcan fared worse and face relegation to the silver fleet at the weekend unless they can dig deep and secure some top ten results on Friday’s final day of qualification racing.
