Giles Scott admitted teammate Pete McCoy deserved a share of the plaudits after claiming Finn gold at the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma.
With Scott’s Finn becoming damaged during the regatta, the world and European champion turned to the injured McCoy for help.
McCoy duly lent his compatriot his Finn and Scott never looked back, heading into the medal race with an 11-point lead at the top.
Scott was quick out of the blocks in the medal race, leading at the first windward mark and holding his lead from thereon in to claim the victory and defend his regatta title, although he insisted the success was all down to his teammate’s generosity.
“It’s been pretty trying to say the least, but I think actually it’s been pretty trying for a lot of us Finn sailors,” said Scott, who is now unbeaten in the last 18 months.
“It’s been pretty difficult out on the course that we’ve been racing on, and on top of the conditions I’ve had a bit of damage to my boat, but it’s going off to Poland to be fixed and it’ll be ready for Hyeres which I’m pretty happy about.
“I certainly owe [Pete] one. I’m not going to say it’s been convenient because poor old Pete’s pretty injured at the moment, but it was very nice of him to lend me his boat.
“It was good to see how I could go in a different boat. Finns are very personal, so to be able to use someone else’s and still come away with the regatta win, you have to take some positives from that and it’s all good practice.
“I feel that things haven’t really gone my way this week so to come away with the victory is pretty good.”
Elsewhere, there were silver medals for Alison Young in the Laser Radial, John Gimson and Hannah Diamond in the Nacra 17 and Luke Patience and Elliot Willis in the 470 Men’s event, with Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark sealing bronze in the 470 Women’s class.
With gold already won by French world champions Billy Besson and Marie Riou, Gimson and Diamond were out to protect their silver medal position in the final ten-boat race for the multihull fleet. A sixth place in the race was enough to do just that, and Diamond was delighted with their progress as a new pair.
“We’re so happy! It was a really good medal race for us, and we did exactly what we had to do,” Diamond explained.
“I feel we sailed really well for our first medal race together, and picked up a load of things that we need to work on which I’m excited about.
“We’re really happy with the progress that we’ve made together, and John’s done a great back on the helm again.
We know the mistakes we’ve made and we don’t feel like we’re the finished product yet, so we’re really excited about the next couple of events and working through those areas we’ve identified ready for the big summer events.”
Young was in a similar position in the Laser Radial medal race. Belgian Evi Van Acker had already secured the regatta win, leaving Young to protect her silver which she managed to do successfully, finishing fourth in the medal race.
“It’s been a pretty solid week and some things have moved forwards, which is pleasing, and there are some learning points to take on to the rest of the season.,” Young said.
“Evi had a great week, and really well done to her. Today I was just trying to go out and win the medal race.
“There were two boats behind me that I had a little bit of a gap on but I just tried to sail a good race and try to win it. Fourth at the end was OK.”
Patience and Willis attempted to overhaul their Argentine rivals Lucas Calabrese and Juan de la Fuente at the start of 470 Men’s finale in a bid to wrestle gold from them, but it was not to be in the painfully light winds that befell their medal race.
The British pairing finished seventh in the race ahead of the Argentinean Olympic bronze medallists in eighth, but it was not enough to reduce the 11 point deficit.
Willis said: “The approach was to try and engage him as close to the start as possible, to try and inflict a penalty on him. We gave it a good go, but it was pretty hard to do in those conditions.”
And in the 470 women’s event, Mills and Clark held on to overall third in what Mills described as a ‘hideous race’, beset by wind shifts and fluctuating pressure across the course.
“The wind was tracking right the whole time, but the pressure would come down a bit randomly and sometimes the left would just get the pressure first and sail round everyone on the right,” the Olympic silver medallist explained.
“There were place changes all over and quite weirdly we all ended up bunched together on the last run for a quite exciting finish!”
© Sportsbeat 2015