Eve McMahon will start the final two races at the Princess Sofia Trophy off the coast of Mallorca in second place in the ILCA 6 dinghy event.
McMahon almost had a perfect penultimate day except for a shock move by her British training partner Daisy Collingridge in the final race of the day.
The Howth sailor had worked her way up from the bronze position in the opening race of the day by placing second in the first of two races.
She followed that with a third place and consolidated her overall lead of the event. Another top-five result in the final race would certainly have consolidated her lead.
Instead, her British rival engaged her in a match-race battle that ignored the other boats racing and caused both boats to drop down the standings for the race.
McMahon eventually got ahead but finished 19th. However, because of the permitted race discard system, Collingridge was able to pull ahead on overall points and McMahon ended up second overall ahead of the final series.
"I'm happy enough," said McMahon after racing ended, although she could barely hide her annoyance that a match race had happened earlier than expected. Such a tactic is usually only deployed in the final race of the event to leverage the points system.
Meanwhile, Saturday's final features an updated approach to decide the podium. As usual, only the top 10 sailors go forward. However, there will be two short races and any of the 10 could, in theory, win a medal.
"I'm looking forward to the new format, it's definitely all to play for," said McMahon, who has trained at several test events for the revised system.
The 22-year-old is the only Irish sailor to have made it through to the final series, with her brother Ewan finishing 14th overall in the men's edition of the race.
