McHardie and McKenzie last night finished fourth in a tightly contested 49er medal race to end the French Olympic Week in Hyères in sixth overall – four points off third place.
Spanish duo Diego Botin and Florian Trittel had all but secured gold after a dominant finals series, but the young Kiwi team could still add silverware to the bronze they claimed at the season-opening Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma de Mallorca three weeks ago with a strong result in the double-points finale - and a bit of luck.
While they managed the former, the latter eluded them.
“We knew points were close and we were well within reach of second place," McKenzie said. "The plan for the medal race was to go out and push as hard as we could … and just hope that the boats behind us finished in an order that suited us.
“We felt like we had a good race – finishing fourth – but unfortunately, the guys we needed to beat were either just in front of us or just behind us.”
Teammates Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn, who won gold in Spain for a Kiwi 1-3, last night finished ninth overall with an eighth place in the 10-boat medal race.
The two crews spent much of the New Zealand summer training together – focusing on boat speed – and McKenzie feels their collective hard work has paid off.
“We consider this European block to have been a success – we got a third in Palma and a sixth place here and we were in the medal hunt in both. That’s all we could ask for,” McKenzie said.
"Logan and Oscar also had strong performances and put up a good fight in the medal race but we're happy to have just pipped them today."
Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson were the only other Kiwi team in action last night, finishing 10th in the Nacra 17 medal race for a top-10 placing overall.
Tom Saunders (11th) and George Gautrey (14th) couldn’t qualify for the medal race in the ILCA 7 (Laser) class, won by Britain’s Elliot Hanson after a tense tussle with teammate and Palma gold medallist Michael Beckett.
New Zealand's two Olympic 49er FX hopefuls also missed out on gold-fleet racing after struggling in the extreme conditions on the Mediterranean coast.
National champions Alex Maloney and Olivia Hobbs finished 29th overall, while Jo Aleh and Molly Meech were 34th.
Most of the 27-strong Kiwi contingent will now return to New Zealand after a successful start to the European season that saw the team also claim silver and a second bronze at the Princess Sofia Regatta.
“We’ll have six weeks at home now to recover and work on a few things before our next regattas,” McKenzie said.
“Our speed is feeling good and we're racing well – now we just have to keep on improving and try to lower our average score by a few points by keeping that consistency up.”
Final results and standings at the French Olympic Week regatta in Hyères:
49er (72 boats)
1st: Diego Botin/ Florian Trittel (Spa) 1 11 5 4 1 2 12 1 1 13 (RET25) 3 10 14 - 78 points
2nd: Jim Colley/Shaun Connor (Aus) 5 7 6 1 2 14 (UFD25) 18 3 4 9 8 6 4 - 87 pts
3rd: Mikolaj Stanul/Jakub Sztorch (Pol) 7 1 2 12 8 3 1 (15) 14 8 7 13 4 10 - 90 pts
6th: Isaac McHardie/Will McKenzie (NZ) 5 15 9 1 5 11 (20) 16 2 10 1 6 5 8 - 94 pts
9th: Logan Dunning Beck/Oscar Gunn (NZ) 2 1 1 11 1 10 (19) 12 16 6 6 12 17 16 - 111 pts
42nd: Campbell Stanton/Will Shapland (NZ) 19 (DNC25) DNC25 3 3 21 18 14 4 6 15 - 128 pts
49th: Scott McKenzie/Blake McGlashan (NZ) 14 15 (DNC25) 16 17 10 1 12 - 85 pts
55th: Sam Morgan/Pat Morgan (NZ) 17 (DNF25) DNC25 22 3 13 8 14 - 102 pts
49er FX (50 boats)
1st: Odile van Aanholt/Annette Duetz (Ned) 2 2 (9) 2 2 7 3 3 4 2 4 6 1 12 - 50 pts
2nd: Jana Germani/Giorgia Bertuzzi (Ita) 1 1 14 3 3 1 2 17 16 (24) 2 16 10 16 - 102 pts
3rd: Martine Grael/Kahena Kunze (Bra) 11 (DNC26) 2 2 10 11 4 14 5 17 1 12 17 6 - 112 pts
29th: Alex Maloney/Olivia Hobbs (NZ) 11 10 18 16 (23) 11 2 9 8 7 8 - 100 pts
34th: Jo Aleh/Molly Meech (NZ) 13 14 13 18 11 17 (24) 10 14 1 4 - 115 pts
45th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith/Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZ) 22 (DNC26) 20 24 16 22 4 16 11 18 16 - 169 pts
ILCA 7 (155 boats)
1st: Elliot Hanson (GBR) 2 1 1 1 (18) 8 6 4 7 4 2 - 36 pt
2nd: Michael Beckett (GBR) 3 3 5 3 1 4 (11) 3 4 3 8 - 37 pts
3rd: Pavlos Kontides (Cyp) 16 4 4 2 3 6 1 1 2 (20) 4 - 43 pts
11th: Tom Saunders (NZ) 5 1 7 3 15 1 5 32 26 (38) - 95 pts
14th: George Gautrey (NZ) 5 6 4 7 6 21 25 (31) 12 17 - 103 pts
73rd: Luke Cashmore (NZ) 30 14 16 25 34 (45) 28 19 - 166 pts
107th: Luke Deegan (NZ) 21 27 37 29 38 (44) 13 1 - 166 pts
125th: Caleb Armit (NZ) 46 31 19 34 34 (48) 27 26 - 217 pts
ILCA 6 (94 boats)
1st: Sarah Douglas (Can) 1 2 9 2 8 4 8 12 (23) 8 20 - 74 pts
2nd: Anne-Marie Rindom (Den) 4 13 4 (17) 8 5 2 6 8 7 18 - 75 pts
3rd: Casey Imeneo (Aus) 8 5 6 1 3 (38) 6 2 25 17 10 - 85 pts
60th: Olivia Christie (NZ) 22 18 23 34 33 33 (35) 2 - 165 pts
Nacra 17 mixed (46 boats)
1st: John Gimson/Anna Burnet (GBR) 3 3 1 5 (7) 1 1 1 6 5 1 1 4 - 32 pts
2nd: Mateo Majdalani/Eugenia Bosco (Arg) 2 1 11 11 5 3 4 11 4 1 (13) 7 10 - 70 pts
3rd: Gianlugi Ugolini/Maria Giubilei (Ita) 7 5 2 (20) 1 15 5 4 10 3 11 2 12 - 77 pts
10th: Micah Wilkinson/Erica Dawson (NZ) 6 15 14 1 11 7 8 16 1 14 4 (17) 20 - 117 pts
470 mixed (64 boats)
1st: Jordi Xammar/Nora Brugman (Spa) 1 1 12 3 2 4 2 5 (29) 19 4 - 53 pts
2nd: Lara Vadlau/Lukas Mahr (Aut) 5 3 2 9 6 9 10 1 4 (UFD33) 12 - 61 pts
3rd: Malte Winkel/Anastasiya Winkel (Ger) 7 7 2 8 4 (14) 13 10 9 2 2 - 64 pts
57th: Brittany Wornall/Sam Street (NZ) 18 (DNC33) 30 19 17 26 25 21 22 23 - 201 pts
Kitefoil women (50 boards)
1st: Lauriane Nolot (Fra) 3 1 (4) 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 (12) 11 3 (14) 5 1 1 - 34 pts
2nd: Daniela Moroz (USA) 1 (2) 1 1 (DNC26) 4 3 11 9 1 2 9 5 1 8 (19) 2 - 56 pts
3rd: Jessie Kampman (Fra) 1 1 (2) 2 9 2 2 1 2 4 (19) 6 4 3 1 (DNC26) 3 - 38 pts
28th: Justina Kitchen (NZ) (15) (12) 12 11 5 2 4 - 34 pts
Full results here.