LUKE PATIENCE teamed up with Switzerland’s Kilian Wagen to triumph in the J/70 World Championship in Monte Carlo last weekend.

The Rhu sailor, who retired from Olympic competition at the end of 2021 after missing out on a medal in Tokyo last summer, teamed up with Killian Wagen’s Swiss team on board Decouvertes Geomod to win the open category on the Riviera’s waters.

Four hundred sailors in 90 boats competed in the event, organised for the first time by the Yacht Club de Monaco, with the GB pair of Wagen and Patience, and their crewmates Gregoire Siegwart (Switzerland), David Hughes (USA) and Celia Willison (NZ), demonstrating exemplary helmsmanship and tight mark roundings to amass just 14 penalty points during the course of the event – well clear of nearest challenger Pierrik Devic and his Monegasque crew on board Leonteq (36 points), with Peter Duncan (USA) and Relative Obscurity third on 41.

“We came here with one goal and we are delighted to have achieved that,” Patience said afterwards.

“It’s a great team and we just conserved energy to give it our all today, even though we were constantly nervous about our decisions on the water.”

The victory demonstrates that Patience hasn’t lost his competitive edge despite the decision to retire from Olympic competition following the Tokyo Games last summer.

His pursuit of a medal in Japan last year, after partnering Stuart Bithell to a memorable silver at the London Olympics in 2012 in the men’s 470 class, features prominently in Chasing Tokyo, an 88-minute documentary released online at Olympics.com in July.

Both Patience and his fellow Team GB sailor Charlotte Dobson started out in sailing at the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club in Rhu, whose members celebrated a season of success at their annual prize-giving and ‘laying-up supper’ at their clubhouse on Saturday – more on that to follow in a future edition of the Advertiser.