Alex Maloney and Olivia Hobbs feel like they're finding their feet as a combination and it showed in today's results at the French Olympic Week regatta in Hyeres, with the pair notching three good results to put them right in the hunt.

Maloney and Hobbs were first, fourth and third in their three races today to move up into seventh in the 49erFX, only four points off third.

The top half of the fleet will now move into two days of gold fleet racing, when points can accumulate more quickly, before the top10 medal race, and also moving through will be Jo Aleh and Molly Meech who are 15th in their first international event together.

Maloney and Hobbs teamed up earlier this year and emerged from qualifying in Hyeres with two race wins and four other results in the top five.

"We are feeling a lot more comfortable as a team and in the boat in general, which is nice," Hobbs says.

"We were pretty happy with our speed today and want to keep up the consistent results."

"I think it's really encouraging. It's felt pretty natural with Liv from the start," says Maloney.

"When you're thrown into a racing environment, you learn pretty quickly and it's apparent we both haven't raced that much over the last couple of years."

Not many of the New Zealand squad in Hyeres have due to Covid-19 but many have put together some impressive results early in the European season.

Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson are fifth in the Nacra 17, George Gautrey sixth in the ILCA 7 (Laser) and Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie and Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn 10th and 11th respectively in the 49er.

Veerle ten Have remains the best-placed of the Kiwis in fourth in the women's iQFoil but didn't race today due to a mix up from race officials and then a dying breeze.

The Nacra 17 fleet enjoyed beautiful foiling conditions of 10-12 knots earlier in the day and Wilkinson and Dawson put together scores of 3, 3, 10, 4.

The Italian pair of Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti have won five of the nine races so far to open up a handy lead but things can change quickly in gold fleet racing.

"It was a pretty awesome day, with champagne foiling conditions," says Wilkinson.

"We managed to get three out of the four starts right and had some pretty mega drag races with the Italians, Finnish and British. Boat speeds were high and we had a lot of fun but they still had the legs on us.

"The results weren't too bad but we're still missing a click of speed, particularly on the Italians. We're pretty happy with our upwind foiling but we still need to find another gear."

It was a disastrous day for ILCA 7 world champion Tom Saunders, who was disqualified from both of his races today for being over the start line early. He still qualified for gold fleet, along with Gautrey who is well placed in sixth.

"It was a tough day out and sometimes you've just got to laugh," says Saunders.

"I finished in the top three in both races but was over [early] for both. It happens. I'll regroup and look to finish the regatta well."

Results and standings after day 3 of the French Olympic Week regatta in Hyeres:

49er (61 boats)

1st: Dominik Buksak / Szymon Wierzbicki (POL) 3 1 1 3 (4) 1 1 4 2 - 16points
2nd: Nevin Snow / Max Agnese (USA) 1 4 3 1 2 3 3 (11) 5 - 22 pts
3rd: Diego Botin / Florian Trittel (ESP) (13) 10 1 2 6 5 7 3 4 - 38 pts

10th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 2 11 4 8 11 3 2 (20) 15 - 56 pts
11th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 12 6 7 8 1 13 11 5 (14) - 63 pts
43rd: Sam Bacon / Henry Gautrey (NZL) 14 15 12 29 23 22 20 (32 BFD) 5 - 140 pts

49erFX (38 boats)

1st: Helene Ness / Marie van Ronningen (NOR) 5 (13) 1 1 1 1 4 4 4 7 - 27 pts
2nd: Lara Granier / Maelie Riou (FRA) 1 5 3 8 6 (20 DSQ) 2 1 2 - 28 pts
3rd: Vilma Bobeck / Rebecca Netzlar (SWE) 1 1 14 (20 DSQ) 2 9 3 2 1 - 33 pts

7th: Alex Maloney / Olivia Hobbs (NZL) 3 10 5 (11) 10 1 1 4 3 - 37 pts
15th: Jo Aleh / Molly Meech (NZL) 6 12 (16) 4 15 2 9 8 6 - 62 pts

Nacra 17 (32 boats)

1st: Ruggero Tita / Caterina Banti (ITA) 1 (5) 4 4 1 1 1 1 2 - 15 pts
2nd: John Gimson / Anna Burnet (GBR) 3 (16) 3 1 5 4 5 2 1 - 24 pts
3rd: Sinem Kurtbay / Akseli Keskinen (FIN) (14) 1 3 2 2 2 3 6 - 30 pts

5th Micah Wilkinson / Erica Dawson (NZL) 7 1 12 (16) 6 3 3 10 4 - 46 pts

Women's iQFoil (32 boards)

1st: Hélène Noesmoen (FRA) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (2) (6) 1 - 8 pts
2nd: Maja Dziarnowska (POL) (6) (6) 5 2 3 2 2 3 4 2 - 23 pts
3rd: Delphine Cousin (FRA) 2 3 (6) (6) 2 4 3 4 2 6 - 26 pts

4th Veerle ten Have (NZL) (9) 4 2 5 7 3 4 5 (8) 4 - 34 pts
29th: Brianna Orams (NZL) 27 28 26 28 (30) (30) 29 25 25 25 - 213 pts

Men's iQFoil (57 boards)

1st: Nicolas Goyard (FRA) (10) 2 2 (6) 2 1 1 1 1 1 - 11 pts
2nd: Sebastian Koerdel (GER) (11) 1 6 4 3 2 4 3 (18) 2 - 25 pts
3rd: Clément Bourgeois (FRA) 2 3 3 1 6 (58 DNF) 8 2 (14) - 28 pts

15th: Josh Armit (NZL) 15 13 13 (28) 7 10 (17) 9 11 6 - 84 pts
30th Eli Liefting (NZL) 27 36 (47) 20 20 31 24 32 31 (40) - 221 pts
56th: Thomas Crook (NZL) (DNC 58) (DNC 58) DNC 58 DNC 58 DNC 58 DNC 58 DNC 58 DNC 58 DNC 58 DNC 58 - 464 pts

ILCA 7 (129 boats)

1st: Philipp Buhl (GER) 1 (3) 1 1 2 1 - 6 pts
2nd: Matt Wearn (AUS) 2 1 1 1 1 (44 UFD) - 6 pts
3rd: Pavlos Kontides (CYP) 3 1 2 2 1 (10) - 9 pts

6th: George Gautrey (NZL) 9 2 2 2 5 (16) - 20 pts
31st: Tom Saunders (NZL) 2 3 1 4 (44 UFD) 44 UFD - 54 pts
88th: Luke Cashmore (NZL) 35 26 28 (41) 9 29 - 127 pts
89th: Luke Deegan (NZL) (35) 17 31 25 33 21 - 127 pts

ILCA 6 (65 boats)

1st: Agata Barwinska (POL) 8 2 1 17 4 (19) - 32 pts
2nd: Emma Plasschaert (BEL) 6 7 10 8 6 (37) - 37 pts
3rd: Marie Barrue (FRA) 16 12 6 16 (28) 1 - 51 pts

45th: Olivia Christie (NZL) 32 33 40 39 36 (44) - 180 pts

Full results