Contesting their first event together in six years after re-forming their partnership, Brotherton and Asquith both insisted they had no result target in mind heading into their first event back, yet walked away with silver behind Italian brothers Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello.
 
The Austrian crew of Nico Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch, who Brotherton coached up until the World Championship in July, completed the podium line-up in third.

The 29-year-old Asquith said: “[I'm] totally stoked.
 
“I’m really pleased, considering we came here just to assess our training and with no outcome in mind.
 
“There are plenty of places where can still improve and work on, but it’s great to know that Paul and I are still there.”
 
Consistency was the key across the range of wind conditions experienced during the six-day event on the Adriatic, and of the 18 races held at the Championships, Brotherton and Asquith picked up just four scores outside the top 10.
 
The 43-year-old Brotherton coached Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson to Beijing Olympic gold in the Yngling but is now hoping to make an impact on the water himself.

He said: “Barring one or two mistakes that we made it’s been a good start to our campaign.
 
“The great thing about having such a strong squad of 49er sailors in Britain is that we were pretty confident from the training we’d done with them that we weren’t slow and that we could keep pace.
 
“We’ve had a good range of conditions out here, some good breeze to test us.

"It’s a great start, but testing and learning is really all this week has been about for us.”
 
John Pink and Rick Peacock were the only other British crew to make the 10-boat final medal race, finishing in ninth overall.