Dempsey takes World Cup lead in Hyeres

The 35-year-old made the most of the only race of the day in his class, with weather once again playing havoc with the schedule.

Dempsey posted a fifth-place finish to take the overall lead, while Bryony Shaw also remains well placed in second in the women's windsurfing fleet after picking up a 12th in her sole race on Friday.

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark remain firmly in the hunt in the 470 Women's event, in second overall just a point behind the Brazilian crew, while overnight leaders John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas slipped to third in the Sonar.

And in the men's 470 Luke Patience and Chris Grube were happy to bounce back with an eighth in their only race to go ninth overall, after a big points day on Thursday where they picked up a black flag disqualification and a 26th.

"We were a little bit slow in the first race yesterday, we were just struggling for a little bit of pace," said Grube. "Our programme at the moment is all aimed at getting us going faster but when you're trying to go faster sometimes you have to accept you're going to go slower at some points.

"Today the aim was just to go out and have a solid race, which we did."

Sportsbeat 2016