After the second day of racing at the ISAF world sailing championship, defending world champions Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell of Great Britain have taken an early lead in the 83-boat Star class.

Percy, who won the Olympic gold in the Finn class at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, teamed up with Steve Mitchell last year and within ten months they had won the world championship title. A year on they are looking in good shape and a second and first place finish yesterday placed them first overall after managing to discard their worst result so far, a 13th.

Percy said: “We are really pleased with our results today. We are sailing steadily which works for us as it is months and months of effort up to this point and I think it is the only thing we can do. Everyone is going to have good and bad luck but in the long run you need to work so hard on your speed. We don’t feel that we are there yet but we are good in these conditions and feel we are making good progress.”

They lead the class by three points from Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau of France with Francesco Bruni and Guido Vigna of Italy in third place.

Today saw the Finn class get underway and fellow British Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie made a steady start to the world championships. In conditions that ranged from 14-20 knots he managed a third and fifth, placing him fourth overall.

Ainslie commented: “I am really pleased with this result on the first day of the event. A couple of people in our class had average days and really at this stage you just want to get two relatively consistent races in the bag.”

The 1996 Olympic silver medallist Sebastien Godefroid of Belgium takes an early lead in the fleet from David Burrows of Ireland.

It was also a good day for Team GBR in the Mistral fleets as Nick Dempsey posted two results in the top five to climb up into fifth place overall and team mate Dom Tidey moved up to 14th place from 22nd.

In the women’s Mistral fleet Natasha Sturges scored a 10th and a seventh to move from 17th to 13th overall.

Today will see racing commence in the Tornado, 49er, Laser and 470 men and women classes and will also see the final day of racing for the Europe class and the new 2003 Europe world champion crowned. The Mistral class have a lay day today.

Results

Finn (day one)

1, Sebastien Godefroid, BEL (2,1) 3 pts

2, David Burrows, IRL (5,2) 7 pts

3, Jonas Hoegh-Christensen, DEN (4,3) 7 pts

GBR

4, Ben Ainslie (3,5) 8 pts

6, Charlie Cumbley (7,12) 19 pts

21, Andrew Simpson (32,14) 46 pts

34, Dave Mellor (51,16) 67 pts

40, Matt Howard (44,38) 82 pts

48, Ed Greig (57,36) 93 pts

Star (after day two)

1, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell ((13),1,1,2,1) 5 pts

2, Xavier Rohart/Pascal Rambeau, FRA (1,2,(5),2,3) 8 pts

3, Francesco Bruni/Guido Vigna, ITA (1,2,4,3,(OCS)) 10 pts

GBR

46, Jez Fanstone/Luke Chapman (19,20,12,(24),21) 72 pts

Mistral Men (after day three)

1, Przemek Miarczynski, POL (1,1,1,(8),1,1) 5 pts

2, Julien Bontemps, FRA (1,2,7,3,2,(16)) 15 pts

3, Joao Rodrigues, POR (4,3,3,1,4,(11)) 15 pts

GBR

5, Nick Dempsey ((14),7,4,6,4,3) 24 pts

14, Dominic Tidey ((16),12,7,19,3,6) 44 pts

55, Leo McCallin (20,24,22,33,(58),27) 126 pts

73, Richard Potter ((45),32,38,32,43,17) 162 pts

82, Peter Bird (42,(47),45,47,10,43) 187 pts

85, Toby Monk (29,41,(43),43,40,39) 192 pts

91, Douglas Etheridge (43,(50),38,39,41,46) 207 pts

97, Gavin Rogers (45,42,47,42,44,(53)) 220 pts

105, Paul Sibley (49,49,53,49,48,(54)) 248 pts

Mistral Women (after day three)

1, Lee Korsitz, ISR (1,4,3,6,1,(32)) 15 pts

2, Allison Shreeve, AUS ((24),14,4,2,2,1) 23 pts

3, Faustine Merret, FRA (3,(27),10,1,6,6) 26 pts

GBR

13, Natasha Sturges (18,(21),18,15,10,7) 68 pts

39, Bryony Shaw (23,44,28,34,(46),42) 171 pts

Yngling (after day three)

1, Ulrike Schuemann/Wibke Buelle/Winnie Lippert, GER (15,(27),1,1,13,2) 32 pts

2, Hannah Swett/Joan Touchette/Melissa Purdy, USA ((16),12,2,7,1,10) 32 pts

3, Jody Swanson/Cory Sert/Elizabeth Krat, USA (3,1,11,(16),7,11) 33 pts

GBR

7, Shirley Robertson/Sarah Webb/Sarah Ayton ((37),18,5,10,2,3) 38 pts

15, Cathy Foster/Jane Norris/Annie Lush (22,23,10,5,10,(28)) 70 pts

39, Dominica Lyndsey/Lucy Burn/Vicky Symmers (40,39,29,34,(OCS),41) 183 pts

Europe – Gold fleet (after day five)

1, Siren Sundby, NOR (1,1,3,5,2,3,15,1,(23),1) 31 pts

2, Lenka Smidova, CZE (2,8,5,8,3,4,7,10,(OCS),7) 54 pts

3, Sari Multala, FIN (1,1,2,1,33,53,1,15,1,6) 61 pts

GBR

31, Laura Baldwin (29,30,23,25,29,10,20,(43),22,12) 200 pts

54, Nicky Muller (9,31,20,18,54,47,34,(55),35,45) 293 pts