Yachting: Burling and Tuke make strong start to title defence

World champion Kiwi sailing pairing Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. Photo / File.

World champion Kiwi sailing pairing Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have made a strong start to their title defence, leading the 49er class after the opening day of racing at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, Spain.

Burling and Tuke put three race results on the board today, opening the regatta in the best possible way with a win in race one. In race two they placed fourth, and then seventh in the last race of the day to hold the overall lead in the class.

"There was no racing yesterday for us so we did our first three qualifying races today," said Tuke. "We had a solid day today, which lays a nice platform for the week."

"It is a really tricky course with big shifts so we are happy to get out of the day without any big scores," he said.

Logan Dunning-Beck and Jack Simpson have also started well in with three single digit scores to lie third overall in the current results. Of the 49er fleet the Kiwi crews were the only two teams to score three top ten finishes on the water today.

Another five New Zealand crews are lying within the top 10 of their fleets after racing today although in the Nacra, 49er, 49erFX and men's 470 one half of the boats have one less race on the board making overall standings biased towards those that have completed more racing.

After a slow start both Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie and Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox have gained places after today's performances in their respective 470 fleets.

The reigning world champs Aleh and Powrie move into seventh overall with a sixth and a second in today's races. Now at the end of the second day of competition in the women's 470 the fleet has four races on the board and points are tight at the top with the NZL Sailing Team pair just a couple of points off fourth place.

In the men's fleet Snow-Hansen and Willcox sailed two races today placing fourth and then 20th.