WORLD and Olympic champions Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson extended their lead at the top of the Star fleet on another day dominated by light sea breeze conditions at the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma on Thursday.

It was a three-race day for the men’s keelboat class as the organisers attempted to catch up on the schedule. Percy and Sherborne's Simpson picked up a 16,1,10 for their efforts, but with their closest rivals also struggling in the light and tricky conditions the Skandia Team GBR sailors extended their lead to 10 points at the top of the leaderboard.

“There was very little wind out there, it was pretty hard going,” Percy explained. “We didn’t feel we got it right, but somehow we seemed to still have a good day.

“The breaks didn’t really go our way out on the course, but we fought back really hard and so are pretty pleased to have extended our lead.”

Triple Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie has also extended the gap over his nearest rival, team-mate Giles Scott, with two more race wins under his belt in the Finn class.

Ainslie has a nine-point margin over the 23-year-old world bronze medallist, with Scott posting 3,7 in the testing conditions with the two British sailors edging away from the rest of the fleet with two more days left to go.

Skandia Team GBR has a third boat inside the top 10 medal race positions in the Finn event, with World Champion Ed Wright currently in sixth overall in spite of having to retire from the first race of the day due to a second yellow flag penalty.

Weymouth's Nick Dempsey remains in second place in the RS:X men’s windsurfing event, but was frustrated that Dutchman Dorien van Rijsselberge nudged ahead with two race wins to Dempsey’s 4,10 from Thursday’s two races.

“I’m feeling a little disappointed in myself. I’m Sailing fast but made a couple of mistakes and paid a high price!” he explained.

“It's still all on, but there will be no room for error today.”

Paul Goodison and Nick Thompson are second and third overall in the closely-fought Laser fleet.

The Olympic champion Goodison was penalised for a premature start in the first race of the day, allowing the Australian world champion Tom Slingsby to creep back into the overall lead on this first day of gold fleet racing, while in the women’s single-handed Laser Radial event Charlotte Dobson saw a change of fortunes and is up to fifth overall thanks to 9,5 from her two races.

Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign were frustrated to have been called over the startline early in their second race of an otherwise impressive three-race day for them in the 49er class.

They’re up to third overall thanks to a fifth and a second from their other two races, and are keen to keep the pressure on their older compatriots in what’s a traditionally strong class for Skandia Team GBR.

Three other British boats are in the top 10 after day four of this ISAF Sailing World Cup event, with Paul Brotherton-Mark Asquith eighth, Chris Draper-Peter Greenhalgh ninth and Stevie Morrison-Ben Rhodes enjoying a solid day of 6,3,7 to see them improve to tenth overall.

Megan Pascoe is in a strong position to claim World Cup silverware in the 2.4mR Paralympic event when they take to the water for their final day of racing on Friday. She’s currently third overall, while Nic Asher and Elliot Willis are up to fourth in the 470 Men’s event and Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes in the same spot in the women’s fleet.

Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor are poised at 1-1 in their women’s match racing quarter-final against Sally Barkow’s American crew, while Bryony Shaw is 12th in the women’s RS:X fleet.

Racing at the Princess Sofia Trophy continues through until Saturday.

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