Sailors were rewarded for their patience and hours of onshore preparation with a full day of inconsistent and challenging conditions on Thursday at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami, a relief to be racing after Wednesday's no-show. The pressure was on, to complete three to four races per fleet on Thursday to catch up on the race schedule. Sailors experienced slightly cooler temperatures in the morning with breeze ranging from 6 to 8 knots out of the northwest under overcast skies. The breeze built up to 15 knots in the afternoon on some courses, with isolated thunderstorms steadily moving across Biscayne Bay bringing scattered showers.

470 Men
The competition is heating up despite the chilly weather in the 470 Men's fleet. Leaders Sofian Bouvet and Jeremie Mion (FRA) retained the momentum they had from earlier in the week by winning Race 4, making it their third win of the regatta. The World #6 tandem are aiming for their first ISAF Sailing World Cup victory, and crossed the finish line 10 seconds ahead of Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergström (SWE).

However, Thursday belonged to last year's World Cup Miami champions Stuart McNay and David Hughes (USA), who captured victory in races 5 and 6 and closed out Thursday with a one point lead over Bouvet and Mion on the overall leaderboard. The pair won race 5by nearly one minute and a closer five seconds in race 6.

Mat Belcher/Will Ryan (AUS) have moved into third overall, from a 4, 3, 5 scoreline, but are still a challenging 12 points behind the series leaders.

470 Women
An OCS penalty score bumped the former Open 470 European Champion Camille Lecointre and crew Hélène Defrance (FRA) from what appeared to be a convincing win in Race 4. Instead, the victory went to the World #3 team of Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre (GBR). World #4 Anne Haeger and Briana Provancha (USA) placed second.

Series leaders going into the day, Weguelin and McIntyre continued their successes with another win in Race 5, leading from start to finish and defeated World #1 Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar (AUT) by 29 seconds. An impressive scoreline is building up for Weguelin and McIntyre, who now count four wins from 6 races.

In Race 6, the British pair were second behind Mrak Tina and Macarol Veronika (SLO), but still dominate the leaderboard with an eight point advantage over Lecointre and Defrance in second place, and Austria’s Lara Vadlau/Jola Ogar in third.

Three races are scheduled on Friday 31 January 2014.

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Image: 470 Men racing © Walter Cooper

Source: ISAF