No sea change for Irish sailors

Ireland’s sailors made little or no impact around the Saronic Gulf today, as Howth duo Tom Fitzpatrick and Fraser Brown remained 16th overall in the 49er fleet and Sydney veterans Mark Mansfield and Killian Collins tailed off again in the Star, finishing 15th to stay in last place.

Fitzpatrick and Brown had a busy day, competing in three races. A poor start in race 13 saw them capsize and fail to finish.

But a heartening seventh in the next, having slipped back to ninth at a stage, and 13th in their penultimate race of the Games will give them encouragement for their final race on Thursday.

The Dublin-Down pairing, who finished 22nd at this year’s World Championships, have been frustrated with their results of the past week, as has Ireland team manager Garrett Connolly, who has admitted being “tired” of “our poor results” at the Agios Kosmas centre.

David Burrows’ 12th place finish in the Finn class has been Ireland’s best showing.

If results go their way, Mansfield and Collins could beat that. Their only race in the 23-foot boat today was race six, cancelled from yesterday, but again they proved to be off the pace.

In 29-degree temperatures the Royal Cork pairing went around the first marking one minute and 45 seconds down on Swiss pace-setters Flavio Marassi and Enrico De Maria.

That’s the way it stayed on another disappointing day for the 6’ 5” skipper and crew, who remain 17th and last overall.

“It was another disappointing day,” said Collins, “but there’s five more races to go and we can improve. We've been sailing well, but just not getting the luck and the results.”

They lie 50 points behind fleet leaders Brazil – Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferrreira – the crew that struck gold in Atlanta eight years ago.