Another day in paradise for the world's fastest sailors, crystal clear water, glorious sunshine and winds blowing fifteen knots over the four mark downwind course provided the perfect conditions to complete elimination four and the opening round of the men's fifth elimination.

After a relaxed morning spent tuning their equipment the sailors took to the water at two o'clock for the fourth action packed elimination.

Men's Elimination 4

From the world go elimination four was full of surprises, premature starts from five sailors in the first round saw their early exit from the race, including big name Josh Angulo (Angulo / Gun / Dakine).

The first round also witnessed the current event leader, Bjorn Dunkerbeck (Starboard / Severne / Mystic / DunkerbeckEyewear) lose out on a qualifying position. Ross Williams (Tabou / Gaastra) sailed an exceptional heat to fend off the master. Dunkerbeck tried all of his tricks to take fourth place, but Williams was quick to defend his position and faster down the final leg.

Dunkerbeck explains all:
"I have had a great start to the competition and I have been sailing really fast on my largest board and 9.2m & 9.7m sails. This morning the wind picked up just as the heat started and my equipment was too large for the conditions. The other guys had swapped down to their medium boards and I couldn't catch them, so it shows that you have to be really on it in Alacati as anything can happen. I have won three races and a today I had pretty bad race, but I am confident for the week. The wind is forecast to pick up tomorrow so we will see what happens."

After a successful day yesterday Cyril Moussilmani (Starboard / North) suffered in the quarter-finals as he failed to complete his race due to an equipment failure resulting in his overall score being knocked down into tenth place.

Gonzalo Costa Hoevel (Fanatic / North) was performing exceptionally well in all of his heats, claiming two first places, however his luck ran out in the semi-finals when he pushed the start too hard and went over early.

The many times world champion Antoine Albeau (JP / NeilPryde), made it to his first winners' final in Alacati where he claimed a fourth place finish, raising him into ninth place.

We caught up with Albeau after the days racing to find out about his week:
"The conditions here are completely different to the other events as the wind is very light here, even in Korea we had more wind. I had some bad luck in the first three eliminations, I am sailing fast and I made the final today, it will be hard to fight for first place now, but it will depend on how many races we complete."

Winners' final

Finian Maynard (RRD) was the man on fire in Alacati today, Maynard sailed the perfect elimination, scoring first places all the way through the race and finishing the heat with an incredible display of speed.