Maloney, one of the victorious America's Cup crew earlier this year in Auckland, finished 23rd in the first of today’s races - which immediately became his discard - and then placed third and second to finish the penultimate day of this event on a net total of 18 points.

The 21-year-old European under-23 champion Joan Cardona from Spain, who trailed him by one point before racing began today in what is also the Finn World Championship, dropped a little off the pace after a patchy series of results - 11th, fifth and 10th - left him in fourth place on 29 points.

One point ahead of the young Spaniard now is Maloney’s America's Cup team mate and defending champion Josh Junior.

Junior discarded 20-point effort in the first race of the day and then produced a storming finish as he placed second and first.

Junior is on 28 points, five points adrift of Hungary’s hugely consistent European champion Zsombor Berecz, who finished second, sixth and fifth today to stand five points adrift of the leader.

Britain’s Rio 2016 champion Giles Scott - four times the winner of this event - is sixth, on 43 points, having finished third, 12th and fourth today.

Only one race needed to happen today for the Gold Cup to comprise a valid series, but now that marker has been passed and six races in total completed it will be a question of seeing how many more races, if any, can be held tomorrow in an event originally intended to involve 10 races.