Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams have retained their lead in the Star World Championships in San Francisco with a race to sail. The pair were fifth in yesterday's race and hold a seven-point lead over Brazil's Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada.
France's Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau are third, ninepoints behind.
The other Kiwi crew of Rohan Lord and Miles Addy dropped from second place to fifth in the 66-strong fleet after finishing 46th.
Pepper and Williams, who are members of Yachting New Zealand's Olympic squad, rounded the first mark in 12th place but had improved to fifth at the final mark which they maintained until the finish.
"Carl's doing a great job downwind," Pepper said. "We may not be in the best place at each mark but we're focused on being consistent. We've not made any big mistakes. Mind you, the top guys seldom make mistakes so it's hard to put too much time on them."
