After waiting for wind in Arhus, Denmark at the 2013 SAP 49er European Championships, the 49er gold fleet featuring the top 16 placed crews hit the water and sailed two races to determine the overall standings going into the final day of the six day series.
Tauranga's Peter Burling and Blair Tuke sailed two strong races with a 4th and a win and stay at the top of the leader-board seven points clear of Fletcher and Sign from Great Britain, who also sailed well to retain 2nd position.
Team mates Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski, who had the lead earlier in the regatta, are in 8th place still footing it with the world's best with a 9th and a 12th in yesterday's light air races. Crucially they have secured a place in the top eight which means they will sail the final.
World number one ranked 49erFX crew Alex Maloney and Molly Meech (Tauranga) will go into the final race in 3rd overall holding 80 points after a 2nd and a 12th in racing on day five.
Leaders Nielsen and Olsen are well out in front of the pack on 61 points with Brazilian's Grael and Kunze outshining their rivals yesterday by recording a win and a 2nd.
They're in 2nd with 72 points - the Kiwis eight adrift behind them.
Today's final races for both the men in the 49er and the women in the 49erFX are worth double points and cannot be discarded, so the stakes are high.
Olympic silver medallists Burling and Tuke took the overall lead at the end of day four after being in 9th place going into the day's racing. Burling and Tuke appear to have found their groove with four consistent single digit races including a race win while many of their rivals in the Olympic skiff class struggled for consistency posting mixed results from today.
The NZL Sailing Team pair was 2nd, 3rd, 1st and 7th on the water which earned them the dramatic elevation in the ranks to top the leader-board with two days of racing yet to come.
"We sailed pretty well in our first three races, getting top three in all of those, and then the last one we had a pretty bad first beat and the shifts didn't really go our way, and we managed to come back through and finish inside the top ten so we were really happy with the comeback in the last one," said Burling.
"We needed this day to get back up the standings a bit. It's a different day tomorrow there's a lot of points on the last days and this just puts us back in the mix."
"We had a really good day, super shifty conditions so to get four small numbers on the scorecard was pretty satisfying," added Tuke.
2013 SAP 49er European Titles
NZL standings after day five:
3rd Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech (10, 9, 6, 2, 10, 3, 7, 17, 7, 4, 10, 10, 2, 12)
(Women's fleet full results)
1st Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (18, 9, 1, 9, DSQ, 1, 18, 3, 2, 1, 3, 7, 4, 1)
8th Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski (4, 22, 2, 1, 1, 2, 17, 10, 19, 2, 17, 19, 9, 12)
11th in Silver Fleet Ben Goodwin and Sam Bullock