Olympic-bound sailors Jesse and Zander Kirkland endured a tough day at the office at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta in Weymouth, England yesterday.Provisional results at press time showed the siblings 30th in the 38-boat 49er fleet after posting two DNF’s and a 12th place finish.Keen to pick up where they had left off the previous day, the Kirklands had a great start in yesterday’s first race before disaster struck.“After having a great start near the pin, Jesse missed his clip for the trapeze wire as we were accelerating and the boat lurched on without him,” said crewman Zander. “I was already out on the wire and had the boat balanced, so unfortunately the boat kept on going for 20 metres before the boat went over.“By the time we righted the boat and Jesse was back with the boat the fast paced pack was long gone. We sailed the course behind them to stay warm and to work on our boat handling in these challenging conditions.”The local team were able to bounce back in the next race with a respectable 12th place finish.“Race two was solid, but our speed was not dialled in and we ended up 12th,” Zander said. “Our boat handling was sound and we went around numerous boats that were crashing around us.”The Kirklands managed to hang with the lead bunch for most of the third race before their fortunes took another turn for the worse.“We refined our boat set up with coach Mark (Asquith) and had the boat set up better,” skipper Jesse said. “Our speed was markedly better and we were able to hang with the top boats.“We had a great start and were in the top group for much of the race. But due to an oversight in Zander’s spinnaker trimming we pitch poled her hard on the 2nd downwind run, sending Zander flying into the forward rail. We were in seventh, so that was painful to lose that race after working so hard for so long.”Zander said yesterday’s results did not truly reflect the team’s performance and reckoned there were positives to take from the experience.“Our boat handling was pretty clean in this tricky environment and this is something we will continue to work on for the rest of the month,” he added. “The other thing was our speed; by the last one (race), when the wind was the strongest, we felt the fastest we had been on the day.”Yesterday saw the 49er fleet compete in driving rain, tall seas and cool and blustery winds.“Our hands and feet were fighting numbness most of the day,” Zander added.