Tauranga sailor Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have made a strong start to their 49er title defence at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Spain leading the fleet after day one.

On a day where the official report describes it as tough, 'with a challenging up and down wind playing havoc across the seven race courses” the pair put three race results on the board, opening the regatta superbly with a win.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke in action at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, Spain. Photo: Jesus Renedo/Sailing Energy.

In race two they placed 4th, and then 7th in the last race of the day to hold the overall lead in the class.

'No racing yesterday for us so we did our first three qualifying races today. Solid three races today, which lays a nice platform for the week,” says Tuke.

'Really tricky course with big shifts so we are happy to get out of the day without any big scores. Two more qualifying races tomorrow before we split into Gold, Silver and Bronze fleets.

'There has already been a lot of waiting on and off the water the past two days, and we are expecting more of it as the week goes on.”

Another five New Zealand crews are lying within the top ten of their fleets after racing 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

Logan Dunning-Beck and Jack Simpson have also started well with three single digit scores from today [5, 8, 6] 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.

With only two counting races so far, the yellow fleet competitors including New Zealand's Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski have to wait until tomorrow for their third race and an opportunity to balance the results.

Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech put their first races on the board placing 3rd, 9th and 12th which sees them 5th overall, although plenty of front runners are down the standings with only two races to count.

'We managed to get our first three races of FX qualifying at Santander 2014 today in tricky conditions. Still in the game with plenty of sailing to go,” say the pair.

After a slow start both Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie and Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox have gained places in the 470 fleets.

The reigning world champs Aleh and Powrie move into 7th overall with a 6th and a 2nd.

In the men's fleet Snow-Hansen and Willcox sailed two races today placing 4th and then 20th.

In the Laser & Laser Radial classes the single-handed sailors struggled for form, slipping in the standings as a result.

Andy Maloney remains the best placed of the NZL Sailing Team Laser campaigners holding 15th overall with Tauranga's Sam Meech close behind in 16th.

Thomas Saunders and Mike Bullot are now in 19th and 23rd respectively.