Singapore's 17-year-old Maeder rose to the top of the standings after dislodging Croatia's Martin Dolenc for the yellow bib, and did not look back.

He won the men's fleet in a four-rider final after a medal series which featured a new knock-out format.

Multiple world champion Flo Gruber of Germany eventually claimed silver after five days of competition, with Denis Taradin of Cyprus gaining bronze.

"I have used this week to find out how far I could push my speed in difficult conditions without crashing, and I did crash, but mostly the approach worked well for me," said Maeder, who also won gold at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games.

"It was hard to be consistent this week, and working my way out of difficult positions both tactically and strategically, that was the challenge of this week and that's what I'm most pleased about."

Sam Dickinson of Britain suffered a freak injury after falling awkwardly between a boat and pontoon, dislocating his shoulder.

He later received a medal for eighth place after his shoulder was snapped back in.

France's Nolot took women's gold in front of Australian Breiana Whitehead in silver and Poland's Julia Damasiewicz in bronze.

She won two straight races in the final to overtake yellow bib wearer Whitehead and take gold.

"I have realised I need to learn to enjoy racing in the light conditions because in Marseille for the Olympics we will need to be ready for anything and you can't afford to go into any race with a bad attitude about the wind conditions," she said. 

"Here we had leaves in the water and I thought I was going to crash on one of the downwinds with leaves stuck to my foil but I held on and it's nice to win again after taking a break from competition."

The next leg of the series in Cagliari in Italy will begin on Thursday (October 12). 

Both Maeder and Nolot won Formula Kite gold at the World Sailing Championships in The Hague in August.