KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's Tom Ashley and Barbara Kendall are among the pace-setters heading into the second day of the RS:X World Championships off Takapuna.
After a third and first placing in the opening two races of the men's blue fleet, Ashley is in a three-way share of the lead. He tops the overall standings with Israel's Shahar Zubari and Ivan Pastor Lafuente of Spain, all with four points each.
Ashley, who has already qualified for Beijing, concedes he is generally a slow starter at regattas so was thrilled to top the standings after the opening day. "I was really happy with that actually, it was good fun.
"I usually struggle a bit more than that on the first day so it's nice to get a couple of good races out early on."
His Kiwi rival Jon-Paul Tobin also had a strong opening day to finish just one place back in a three-way share of fourth on seven points after a third and a fourth.
In the women's section boardsailing legend Barbara Kendall predictably established herself as one of the top contenders. With a second and first placing respectively in her two races, Kendall is second in the overall standings on three points with Frenchwoman Charline Piccon.
There was drama in the women's standings, though, with Italian Alessandra Sensini, the overall leader who raced in a different group from Kendall, failing to initially feature in the results because of a glitch in the tracking system.
Sensini, a multiple Olympic medallist, crossed the line first in both her races but her placings were not recorded because of a discrepancy between the number on her sail and the number she was registered under.
The Italian veteran was later installed at the top of the standings after race management cross-checked the mark roundings.
Kendall isn't getting too carried away with her early performances as she believes her blue fleet was the less competitive of the two.
"I think I was in the slightly easier seeded group and the gold fleet seemed to have a few more of the better girls in it, so that helped," she said.
Light winds on the Hauraki Gulf made conditions tough for the men's fleet. The start of racing was delayed slightly while organisers waited for the breeze to play ball. When racing did begin there were only 6 to 8 knots, with the wind picking up to around 10 to 12 knots later in the afternoon.
Ashley, who was hampered by a forearm problem in the opening race, said the light winds made sailing a lot more physically demanding.
The three-time youth world champion had to stop pumping half way during the opening race as he struggled to hold on to the boom in the light winds. "It was pretty much exactly what we expected - light, physical conditions."
He hopes varied conditions over the course of the regatta will ease the congestion on the leaderboard. He said some of the strong performers on day one might struggle in stronger wind.
"There's a few guys who can't really sail in more wind that are sailing really well now so the best thing for me is to get a good variety of conditions, which gets rid of the specialists."
Organisers expect light conditions over the next couple of days.
