Yachting: Burling and Tuke in joint lead at worlds

Competitors jostle for position at the start of the 49er Men's Skiff race. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand crews made strong starts to the second week of the ISAF sailing world championships in Perth yesterday, with youngsters Peter Burling and Blair Tuke sharing the lead in the 49er skiff class.

There are high expectations Kiwi sailors will be near the front of the fleet this week after a mixed first week that returned two top-10 finishes (Sara Winther in the Laser Radial and Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders in the men's 470) but plenty of disappointing finishes.

Burling and Tuke made a strong start to their campaign, finishing all three of their races yesterday in stormy conditions in the top five. They are equal on points with Jonas Warrer and Soeren Hansen of Denmark.

"There were a few storms and systems going through, even thunder before our last race and it built quite quickly after that,'' Burling said. "It was not the normal south-west sea breeze today. it was more south or south-east. It was a new breeze for everyone, one we hadn't sailed in before.

"We're walking away with three keepers and that's the main thing. It was a good start, so we're pretty happy.

The women's 470 crew of Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie also had a decent start. The pair, commonly known as Team Jolly, finished their first two races in seventh and fourth place to leave them fourth overall.

Although the priority of the regatta is to qualify boats to next year's Olympics, Tom Ashley and JP Tobin are locked in a fierce battle to convince the New Zealand selectors to give them the ticket to London. Tobin takes better form into the event but Ashley is the defending Olympic champion and will be given every chance to prove himself again, starting with this week's world championships.

Little separated the pair yesterday with Ashley sixth overall after a second and a seventh in his races and Tobin coming home sixth and fourth to be eighth overall.

The battle for the Laser spot is also a tight one with five New Zealand sailors in the elite team. Josh Junior was the highest-placed Kiwi in 12th overall after day one, following a seventh and third in his racing. But Andrew Murdoch (19th) and Mike Bullot (21st) weren't far behind.

The high number of sailors - there are 147 competing in the Laser fleet - means the field is split into three groups for the opening races before they are ranked into gold, silver and bronze fleets.

The women's match racing team faced some of the top competitors in the regatta yesterday with impressive wins over Great Britain and Finland. The crew of Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen and Susannah Pyatt have eight wins and six losses in the second round robin stage but aren't likely to progress to the final round.