And there were World Cup celebrations too for Britain's 49er duo John Pink and Rick Peacock, last year’s world silver medallists, who also picked up gold in what was the penultimate event of this year’s ISAF Sailing World Cup series.
 
Helena Lucas picked up silver in the 2.4mR Paralympic class to claim her third World Cup podium finish this year.

Ayton - who partnered Shirley Robertson and Sarah Webb to win at the 2004 Athens Games and then skippered Webb and Pippa Wilson to victory in Beijing four years later  - is now in ideal shape for the 470 World Championships, which are due to start in the Netherlands in a fortnight’s time.

"It was a tough week with such light winds, but thankfully we got lots of racing in on the first day!" Ayton explained.

"For us, this event was really just about honing some of our racing skills and working on our communications in the boat.

"It takes time to put all those sorts of things in place in a new partnership, so it’s great to see that those aspects are gelling and gives us confidence ahead of the two big events for us this summer which are the Worlds and Skandia Sail for Gold in Weymouth."

It proved a testing event all round, with light winds disrupting all but the first day of racing for most classes.

Ayton and Clark led the 470 class from the outset of a regatta where patience was key.  

After three races on Saturday’s (June 19) opening day, the 470 class then saw just one more fleet race before advancing to today's final medal race, in which a fourth for Ayton and Clark was enough to hand them the regatta victory by four points over Sweden’s Lisa Ericson and Astrid Gabrielsson.



The 49er fleet managed ten races, with Britain's three crews of Chris Draper-Peter Greenhalgh, Pink-Peacock (pictured) and Dylan Fletcher-Alain Sign each topping the leaderboard at various points during the regatta. 

A final day surge by Pink and Peacock, who finished second in the medal race, was just enough to earn them their first World Cup win - albeit on countback - over the Danish crew of Allan Norregaard and Peter Lang.  

In the 2.4mR Paralympic fleet, Lucas turned around a difficult start to her week to claim the silver medal behind the host’s Heiko Kroeger, but there was disappointment for RS:X windsurfer Bryony Shaw for whom an eighth place in the double-points scoring medal race ended her run of World Cup podium spots, with the British sailor finishing seventh overall.

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