The 470, 49er, 49erFX, Finn, Nacra 17 and RS:X fleets had been all scheduled to compete on the Spanish coast, but it was a frustrating day for organisers as a combination of wind shifts and a strong current made it difficult to get racing underway.

In the end it was only the 49ers that got away and the sailors in the yellow fleet managed to complete two races.

New Zealanders Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski were the first crew across the line in race one, but a 22nd place finish in their second outing has them sitting in eighth overall.

The Croatian duo of Pavle Kostov and Petar Cupac followed their 11th in race one with victory in the second race, leaving them in third place on the early leaderboard.

"We are really happy about the first day, especially because we were also leading in the first race," said Kostov.

"It was really shifty downwind [in the first race] and we lost some places to move down to 11th.

"But, all in all, we are really happy with the first day."

Croatia's Pavle Kostov and Petar Cupac secured a win in race two in the 49er class to sit third overall in Santander ©Getty Images



A third and an eighth has Artem Basalkin and Nikolay Chernikov of Russia lying second overall, trailing Australia's Nico Delle Karth and Niko Resch.

The veteran Aussie duo were a model of consistency with two fifth place finishes, seeing them lead the standings after day one of competition.

Defending champions Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen of Australia improved from a disappointing 16th in their opener to register a fourth in the second race to sit in sixth place.

India's Ganapathy Kelapanda and Varun Thakkar, and Italians Stefano Cherin and Andrea Tesei complete the top-six.

All fleets apart from the women's RS:X are scheduled to race in Santander tomorrow.

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