It was a great day on the water in the South of France for sailors Campbell Patton and Sebastian Kempe at the Olympic Week Regatta.

Both of Bermuda’s Ilca 7 sailors navigated the light winds in Hyeres Bay with aplomb to make it into the top 45 of the 136 entrants.

Patton and Kempe competed against each other in red fleet on the second day of competition, with Patton producing the best finish of the pair when ninth in the second of the two races sailed on Tuesday.

Combined with a sixteenth-place finish in the opening race on day two, that ensured Patton finished 33rd in the preliminary series and goes into gold fleet as the top Bermuda representative.

Despite only two of the three scheduled races taking place, Kempe completed a remarkable fightback after being disqualified on the opening day of the regatta.

With no opportunity to recover from any further mistakes, the pressure was on Kempe and he coped with it well, crossing the line in nineteenth and thirteenth in his two races to finish 41st overall and squeeze into gold fleet by just three points.

He will be looking forward to the action tomorrow, with forecast winds of 25 to 30 knots considered favourable.

With the competition from this point split, Patton and Kempe will carry their overall score of 33 and 41 respectively into the elimination round, but that score can then be dropped when they have sailed four of the seven races in the series.

There are seven elimination races scheduled to take place from Wednesday to Friday, with the medal series featuring the top ten sailors set for Sunday.

While there was delight for Patton and Kempe, the third Bermudian at the regatta agonisingly missed out on a spot in the gold fleet.

Adriana Penruddocke, in the Ilca 6, finished just two places outside the top 45 in 47th and the day started well for her with a finish of thirteenth in the opening race in blue fleet.

But back-to-back placings of 25th and 26th in the final two races left her just four points short of a spot in gold fleet and ensures she will finish her week in silver.