Strong start for NZL 49er teams at Sailing World Cup Final

The first day of racing for the Sailing World Cup Final in Melbourne kicked off today with 17 New Zealanders competing across seven classes from the St Kilda Sailing Precinct.

A solid performance was shown by the New Zealand 49er Mens teams in their 19-strong fleet, with all three pairs in the top five after the first days racing.

Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie took out the first two races, while they discard their 11th from the third race to lead the fleet. Just a few places behind them is Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey in 3rd position, with Nick Egnot-Johnson and Jack Rogers finishing their first day in 5th.

"The fleet had seven to ten knots of breeze, with fairly unstable pressure and shifts anywhere from the South to the South-East which made racing tricky. It definitely wasnt a one-way track today, and there have been lots of good learnings with some solid race management," comments NZL 49er coach Jim Maloney.

He says the team has had a nice build up to the event in Melbourne, and is enjoying the racing following their training in Auckland.

Nacra 17 pair Olivia Mackay and Micah Wilkinson also had a good start in the 10-strong fleet with their string of results including two 3rds and a 2nd, leaving them in 3rd place overall.

It was a mixed bag of results for kiwi sailors across the other classes, with three full days of racing yet to come before the medal race for the 49ers, Nacra 17s, and Formula Kites, and four days of racing for the Laser, Laser Radial, Finn and 470 fleets.

Racing continues Wednesday 7 December from 12:00 Melbourne time (14:00 NZL time).

2016 Sailing World Cup Final - Melbourne: New Zealand current standings:

49er Men

1st Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie (1,1,11)

3rd Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey (2,5,4)

5th Nick Egnot-Johnson and Jack Rogers (3,11,3)

470 Men

9th Sam Barnett and Zak Merton (9,8)

12th Markus Somerville and Taylor Balogh (11, 13)

Finn

14th Gary Lokum (15,12)

Laser

9th Andrew McKenzie (6,16)

20th Matthew Kempers (17, 20)

Laser Radial

10th Susannah Pyatt (10,11)

Formula Kite

7th Sam Bullock (4,4,5,1,4,3)

Nacra 17

3rd Olivia Mackay and Micah Wilkinson (3,3,2)

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Yachting New Zealand