Fortunately there was no arm snapping required but Nicola Boniface and Ben Saxton still sailed to World Cup silver in France.
The duo began Saturday’s Nacra 17 medal race secure in the knowledge they already had at least a bronze medal in the bag.
But they finished sixth to bump themselves into the silver medal and reigning world champion Saxton could not have been more pleased.
“I’m pretty happy,” said the 27-year-old. “If you had told me that I would come away with a silver medal from a World Cup event after my crew got injured I would have snapped your arm of for that.”
Boniface was only sailing with Saxton after Katie Dabson, his usual crewmate, injured herself ahead of the recent Princess Sofia Trophy.
The new crew finished second there, though, and continued their form off the coast of Hyeres.
“It’s really exciting to come second again at another event,” said Boniface. “Sadly the medal race was quite light but it’s been a good week for us and we’ve come out quite well at the end of it.”
Elsewhere on the Hyeres waters Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre made sure they will leave the third round of the World Cup with at least a silver medal in the women’s 470.
The World Championships silver medallists secured a race win and an 11th-place finish on Saturday to go into the medal race nine points behind French leaders Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz.
While 49er world champions Dylan Fletcher and Stu Bithell finished their regatta with third in the medal race, leaving them sixth overall.
And it was a similar story in the 49er FX as Charlotte Dobson and Saskia Tidey finished the event fifth, three places in front of team-mates Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth.
More top ten finishes were secured in the Laser Standard and Laser Radial as Lorenzo Chiavarini and Georgina Povall made Sunday’s medal races but are set to miss out on a spot on the podium.
Lastly, in the Finn, Hector Simpson, Ben Cornish, Henry Wetherall and Ed Wright all finished between 13th and 24th to miss out on the medal race.
Sportsbeat 2018
Pic: Richard Langdon/Sailing Energy/World Sailing