Patches tries to limit loss

Sailing:In an intensive, three-race day on the Bay of Palma, Spanish yacht Siemens, with leading pro Paul Cayard calling tactics, yesterday moved into the overall lead of the latest Breitling MedCup regatta. Today's crucial coastal course, with its double-points offering, is the make or break point to decide the front-runners for the Copa del Rey that ends on Saturday.

For Eamon Conneely and skipper Ian Walker on Patches, their defence of their 2006 title on their former boat, ironically sponsored by Siemens last year, has effectively switched to a battle to minimise slippage in the overall standings in the season-long series.

In stark contrast to their practice race form on Monday, yesterday ended with the Galway boat outside the top 10 after a 17th, sixth and 15th scoreline saw Patches drop to 12th overall and, critically, to sixth in the overall standings of the circuit so far.

The reason? Low boatspeed in the first race of the day, possibly due to configuring for the heavier forecast breeze that didn't appear until later, followed by a poor start that ended with a reasonable recovery to sixth. Then a premature start in the third race that saw them restart, but the subsequent chase failed to regain substantial ground.

Today could yet recover some fortune but, as always, winning clear air and playing the windshifts to secure a lead by the first mark is the essence of racing in the absolutely unforgiving fleet.

Once the leaders have passed the first mark, roundings by the chasing fleet are separated not in boat-lengths but in metres, more often in centimetres.

Nor was Patches the only fancied boat to run into problems. Tuesday's opening-day leader Mutua Madrilena appeared to retain form by winning yesterday's first race, then inexplicably placed eighth and 14th. Like Patches, the latter result arose from being scored over the starting line early, but the Italian crew on this Chilean-owned TP52 subsequently lodged a protest against the race committee.

Initially, a general recall flag was raised as the starting signal was made indicating a large number of boats had crossed early. But after around five seconds, this was taken down and soon replaced by the Individual recall signal, with Patches and Mutua identified by VHF radio.

Elsewhere, Russell Coutts on Artemis recovered form in close finishes worthy of the America's Cup he has won three times, took two first places and is growing as a threat to the leaders once more as he recovered to third overall.

Meanwhile, the fleet of 50 boats in La Solitaire du Figaro clocked up more than 180 miles in their first day of racing from Caen to Crosshaven and the leading 10 boats are all separated by less than one mile.

Ireland's sole representative, event rookie Paul O'Rian, improved considerably overnight to reach 27th place and is within eight miles of the front-runners as they close on the Irish coast.