The pair were denied a chance to push for gold when the three medal races at Aarhus were cancelled and the new foiling Nacra 17s recalled to replace the bearings on the daggerboards.
A couple of competitors suffered breakages during the regatta and governing body World Sailing says Nacra Sailing has urged owners not to sail the boats until replacement bearings are fitted.
"A failure of the daggerboards during operation could potentially cause sailors to lose control and crash," Nacra Sailing said.
The new boats will be used at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but doubt has been thrown over whether the Nacra world championships, due to be sailed in France in less than a month, will go ahead.
It was an unsatisfactory conclusion to the regatta for Jones and Saunders, who were competing together for the first time since finishing fourth at last year’s Olympics.
"It was a bit of a shock last night to find out all of this and we don’t have a lot of information yet," Saunders said.
"We hope the world championships will still go ahead. We should find out more information on Monday."
Laser sailors Tom Saunders and Sam Meech were scheduled to contest the double points medal race overnight.
Saunders went into the medal race placed third, while Meech had propelled himself into contention with two wins and a 16th and sat fourth.
