Alex Maloney and Molly Meech had to settle for second at the Kiel Week regatta after finishing fourth in the double points medal race overnight (NZ time).
The Olympic 49erFX silver medallists needed to finish four places ahead of Charlotte Dobson and Saskia Tidey in the medal race to claim gold but the British crew sailed well to win and finished 13 points ahead of the Kiwis, who ended with a comfortable 14-point buffer over third.
Maloney and Meech led the competition after three days but struggled yesterday, even suffering a capsize in the gusty conditions, which Dobson and Tidey capitalised on.
Dobson and Tidey sailed consistetly well all week and have emerged as one of the best combinations in the 49erFX fleet after teaming up as recently as January.
But Maloney and Meech will be satisfied with their return to competitive sailing after taking a break following the Rio Olympics. They finished fifth at the World Cup finals in Santander earlier this month but would have finished in the medals had they not picked up a 50 percent loading on their first-day results for having a boat underweight and backed it up with silver at Kiel Week.
"We feel good against the fleet," Maloney said. "We still have a lot to learn but we back ourselves. It was great to get back into racing over the past month and we were able to practice a few areas of weakness.
