A "morale and confidence" boosting week of sailing at the Miami Olympic Class Regatta continued yesterday for 2012 Olympic hopefuls Zander and Jesse Kirkland when they stayed in 26th place overall in the 49er class against some of the world's top sailors.

The Kirklands had finishes of 21, a week-high 15 and 28 in the three races sailed yesterday on Biscayne Bay.

Leading the 36-boat class are the Danish team of Simon Karstoft and Jonathan Bay.

On Wednesday the brothers had finishes of 19, 25 and 16. They have competed in a dozen races so far with one throw-out – that being the third race on the opening day on Monday which they failed to finish.

Of Wednesday's racing, Zander said that while they had made some "glaring mistakes which cost us at times, we also had our fair share of great moments which have really helped our morale and confidence".

He said: "We had great speed off the wind and did a good job hitting shifts and breeze lines up all around the course. Finally we feel like we are competing and we are slowly inching our way towards the front of the fleet. "

These puffy, flat water conditions suit us well – it is very similar to our college sailing background and growing up sailing in Bermuda. It is also easier to sail the skiff without waves and puts less emphasis on boat handling while racing, thus helpful for our relatively low level of time in the boat."

Of the first race in which they finished 19th, he said: "We had a poor start under the black flag, after not finding a hole in the pre-start and found ourselves in the very bottom of the fleet off the line. We stayed positive and passed boats on every leg of the race – we did a great job staying in the pressure and staying in phase with the oscillating breeze.

"It is amazing how many passing lanes open up in these boats off the wind. They go so fast with the kite up and often staying out of traffic is the name of the game. Both of us feel this may have been our best race yet performance-wise, because we were on top of it for all six legs. It just felt so good sailing around guys the whole race."

Of the day's second race in which they finished 25th, he said: "It was a frustrating race and it left us hungry to finish the day out strong."

And that they did.

"We did a great job controlling the boat downspeed and found ourselves leading the charge to the right side off the line. A few minutes off the line, we had the majority of the fleet on port tack aiming at our stern. We were out with the Finnish team who ended up fourth. We were looking great."

But the Bermudian added: "This is where the wheels fell off for a bit. At some point before we tacked onto starboard to cross the fleet, we unknowingly ran over 15-feet of floating rope! We felt super slow and watched our top five position slip out of our reach. I looked down at the centreboard and saw that we were dragging something. It was incredibly disheartening.

"(But) we were stoked to overcome the adversity and regain our focus, but at the same time it was tough to relinquish our great positioning on the first beat. We are slowly chipping away at putting together all the elements needed to put a great race together."