Alec Cutler produced another solid display of sailing to remain in the thick of contention at the Melges 32 World Championship yesterday.The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) skipper had impressive finishes of fourth, seventh and sixth in the three races sailed in shifty 10-12 knot breezes in Newport, Rhode Island, USA.At press time provisional results showed Cutler tied for third with two other boats with 24 points just three points adrift of leader Andreas Pozzi of Italy.Remarkably, he is the sole remaining skipper in the 33-boat fleet yet to finish a race in double digits.“Three points out of first without a race worse than 7th puts us in decent position headed into the last 4 races,” Cutler told The Royal Gazette. “Other top boats all have high drop races, and can less afford a bad race than we can.”Cutler and his all-North American crew managed to sail consistently in shifty conditions.“The conditions were very tough, very shifty with heavy chop to get through,” he said. “While we would rather have done better, we did have the second best shoreline for the day. The crew worked hard the entire races in order to get what we did.”Cutler started the day in first but was unable to protect his lead.But despite losing ground the local skipper remains in the hunt for top honours heading into the closing stages of the five-day regatta being hosted by New York Yacht Club.“I never really thought about being in the lead yesterday, so I’m not disappointed,” he said. “Rather than think about what place we’re in, we think more about being 3pts from first with a very attractive drop race.”Japan’s Keisuke Suzuki won yesterday’s first race while American John Kilroy won the second and third to bolster his own chances of success at this year’s Melges 32 World Championship that concludes tomorrow.