Giles Scott insists there will still be plenty of twists and turns at the Miami leg of the Sailing World Cup, despite setting the pace in the Finn class on day one.
Scott arrived in Miami looking to defend his title from last year, and in doing so extend his 15-month winning streak.
And the world and European champion got off to a flying start as he fended off Australian Jake Lilley in the first race en route to victory, fellow Brit Ed Wright coming home third.
The second race was another tough battle but again Scott came out on top, this time pipping Crotian Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic to the line.
All this means that Scott is the man to beat after the opening two races, but the 27-year-old isn’t about to celebrate any time soon.
“We had a lot of breeze coming offshore, so it was very windy and very shifty but we got two races in pretty quickly and they both went very well and I managed to come away with a victory in both,” he said. “It was a good start.
“In the second race it was top end of what we can race in, but looking at the long range forecast I think it will be a bit of a mixed bag this week, so hopefully we’ll get all the conditions in.
“The fleet’s certainly very, very strong and it will certainly be a hard week.”
There was another Brit able to celebrate two victories from as many races on day one as Alison Young set the early pace in the Laser Radial fleet.
Young, who won the Melbourne World Cup regatta in December during an intense month-long competition spree, said: “I seemed to make a few less mistakes than anyone else so it was a good day on the water.
“It wasn’t really typical Miami conditions – pretty breezy, still shifty out there so you had to keep your head out of the boat. It was certainly a breezy start to the week.
“It’s been a busy winter for me so far. I had a month of racing around the world – three continents and four competitions in four weeks just before Christmas. It’s good to be here as well and racing again.
“It’s a good fleet for Miami. Pretty much everyone’s here as you’d expect for the first big regatta of the year so it should be good learning and a good challenge.”
Britain’s 470 crews also saw a strong start to their regattas. Luke Patience and Elliot Willis won the day on the men’s division with a race win and a second to sit them on top of the leaderboard after day one, while Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark and Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre took a race win apiece in the women’s fleet and are second and third respectively after two races.
Nick Thompson is poised in fourth after two races in the Laser class, with him and Alex Mills Barton ensuring a British one-two in the second of those races.
Windsurfer Nick Dempsey made the most of his 11th hour admission to the event with provisional scores of 1,2,10 for his opening day, while Bryony Shaw and Izzy Hamilton are fifth and sixth after two races in the women’s competition.
Elsewhere, Dave Evans and Ed Powys are the leading British 49er crew as they sit fourth after three races, with Dylan-Fletcher and Alain Sign and Stevie Morrison and Chris Grube sixth and seventh respectively.
And Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves are currently fourth in the Nacra 17 class after three races.
© Sportsbeat 2015