Royal Cork Yacht Club's Mel Collins is top Irish boat in 24th place after the first days racing of the 2011 SB3 World Championships in Torbay. Scroll down for pics and Video.

Collins Finishes 11th Overall.  Results here

Collins scored 18, 8, 21 to be in the top quarter of the fleet, two points ahead of Irish East Coast Champion Ben Duncan who is sailing for his native New Zealand. The next Irish boat is Howth's Paul McMahon in 46th with Irish placings also in 47th, 48th and 49th. Full Results below.

The 103 boat fleet of Laser SB3's left Torquay Harbour this morning for the first three races. Split into 2 fleets, Orange and Yellow, the fleet lined up for the first scheduled race at 11.00 am. The Race Committee, on both courses, managed to get both fleets underway exactly to schedule. Impressive.

On the Yellow course, Robert Greenhalgh (GBR) showed his talent early on. Notching up a 1, 2, 1 on day one of a World Championships is a score card anyone would be proud of. Peter Saxton (GBR) won the first race on the Orange course and followed up with a 5, 2 placing him second overall overnight on day 1.

Nathan Outteridge (AUS) collected bowman Tom Slingsby (AUS) from the airport at 1am this morning, but lack of sleep and time on the water as a crew did little to dampen his crew's performance. "This is my first day on bow ever! There's a bit on when you get to the bottom mark" smiled Slingsby after completing the first race of the Championships, and their first race ever as a team with fellow Aussie Ian Brown.

The Orange course suffered 2 general recalls as the Race Committee tried to get the second race of the day away. Not deterred by the delay, Glenn Bourke (AUS) dominated the race, extending his lead on each leg. Chatting to Glenn last night he claimed to be "rusty", but today he posted 5, 1, 11 on the score sheet. "More time in the boat will help us iron out some of our creases, but to take a win on the first day of an event like this always makes you feel good!"

2010 Laser SB3 World Champion Jerry Hill (GBR) had a difficult day to start the event. Sailing on the Orange course the 3 Sad Old Blokes struggled in the first race, finishing in 25th position. After starting deep in the second race, they picked their way back to a respectable 9th and despite damage, finished 6th in the third race of the day. "It was hard today, really hard," explained Hill before disappearing to repair his boat.

Joe Llewellyn (GBR) grew up sailing in Tor Bay, and finished the first day of the Zhik SB3 World Championships with a win on the Orange course. Chatting to Joe in the bar of the Royal Torbay Yacht Club after racing he explained, "It was hard conditions today and we had a bad second race. We had some luck in the third race, we benefitted from some of the shifts and we won!" Joe recently became a father again, this time to twins, "I'm looking forward to another sleepless night tonight, and another day on the water tomorrow!"

Three further races are scheduled for Tuesday 17th May. The fleet is slit again, simply by their odd or even overall position at the end of the first day of racing, for the final day of qualifying races.

Series Place	Sail No	Bow No	Boat	Helm	Series Points	Race 1A	Race 1B	Race 2A	Race 2B	Race 3A	Race 3B
1	GBR3489	19	Red	Robert Greenhalgh	4	1		2		1
2	GBR3065	65	Rola-Trac	Peter Saxton	8		1		5		2
3	GBR3042	54	Gill Racing Team	Craig Burton	9	4		3		2
4	AUS3063	32	One Design Sailing	Nathan Outteridge	13	6		4		3
5	GBR3053	111	Geoff Carveth	15		4		2		9
6	GBR3032	92	David Cummins	16	3		8		5
7	AUS3108	70	Club Marine	Glenn Bourke	17		5		1		11
8	RSA3469	49	Asenaithi Jim	17		3		4		10
9	GBR3082	68	Joe Llewellyn	20		6		13		1
10	GBR3058	15	John Pollard	22	2		6		14
11	NED3441	17	Rivium	Paul Gast	22	9		5		8
12	GBR3475	57	Perky III	Jez Entwistle	23		12		6		5
13	ITA3073	39	Stenghele	Roberto Caresani	24		2		3		19
14	GER3561	86	Razzmatazz	Sebastian Dohrendorf	26	12		7		7
15	GBR3462	58	Underground Toys	Andrew Oddie	30	19		1		10
16	GBR3134	84	Marilyn	Dom Ford	32	5		18		9
17	GBR3198	80	Magic Marine	Hugh Styles	34		15		12		7
18	GBR3047	95	Parkway Pirates	Rob Gullan	35		9		14		12
19	GBR3546	98	Orthteam	Richard Catchpole	38		7		18		13
20	GBR3149	16	Poor Buoy	Mark Gillett	39	17		16		6
21	GBR3465	26	3 Sad Old Blokes	Jerry Hill	40		25		9		6
22	GBR3336	8	Uber 3	Adrian Peach	41		8		15		18
23	GBR3027	63	Darling Associates	Chris Darling	44		10		11		23
24	IRL3324	22	Sibelus	Mel Collins	46		17		8		21
25	NZL3287	36	Sailing West - Sharkbait	Ben Duncan	48		16		28		4
26	GBR3029	44	3-Some	Niall Peelo	49		11		16		22
27	GBR3517	75	Doolalli	Colin Simonds	49	18		19		12
28	GBR3276	89	Trouble & Strife	Ian Armstrong	50	11		20		19
29	GBR3464	5	Eric	Martin Wedge	50	15		13		22
30	GBR3556	69	Herbie	Phil Tilley	51	7		29		15
31	GER3402	21	Norah	Daniel Spaenle	51	14		17		20
32	ITA3543	101	Bravi Thytronic	Giovanni Meloni	52	23		12		17
33	GBR3305	55	Rigging Gurus	Mark Richards	54		26		25		3
34	GBR3575	56	Sailboat Deliveries	Sarah Allan	54	29		9		16
35	UKR3443	78	Transbunker	Polovy Valeriy	54	27		14		13
36	GBR3510	52	Hutton's	Richard Wharram	56	21		10		25
37	GBR3041	67	Robina	Dan Goodman	58	16		24		18
38	AUS3607	104	Wysiwyg VI	Stephen Fries	63		22		10		31
39	RUS373	106	Alissa	Vladislav Ivanovski	63		29		20		14
40	GBR3079	116	Excuse Me Gents	Ann Jackson	64		19		37		8
41	RUS3554	109	Team Russia	Rodion Luka	65	8		53		4
42	GBR3183	30	Respect	John Danby	67	33		11		23
43	GBR3014	61	Sponge Bob	Steve McLean	69	13		22		34
44	FRA3078	115	Tad Minus	Vincent Biarnes	69		28		17		24
45	BEL3472	35	Los Zaparteros	Alex Schoenmakers	71		14		21		36
46	IRL3226	112	Quantitative Easing	Paul McMahon	76	35		30		11
47	IRL3312	91	Bomchickawahwah	John O'Driscoll	77		32		30		15
48	IRL3338	59	Milvus Milvus	Robert Howe	77	30		21		26
49	IRL3298	64	Toucan 3	Ross Vaughan	79		43		19		17
50	GBR3084	1	Eau No!	Mark Sotkes	80		20		34		26
51	ITA3596	99	Briefing	Luca Bacci	83		39		24		20
52	GBR3468	60	Fully Badgered	Paul Lovejoy	84	10		32		42
53	GBR3126	102	Geronimo	Simon Hume	86	28		23		35
54	GBR3106	37		Tom Clay	87		21		29		37
55	ITA3606	114	Lunatico XS	Aurelio Bini	88	20		15		53
56	GBR3292	93	Chill Pill	Tich Summers	89		41		7		41
57	GBR3060	73	Finitor 7	Stewart Reed	89		35		26		28
58	NED3511	29		Marco van Driel	90	32		26		32
59	GBR3362	47	Polar Bear	Tim Newton	92		34		42		16
60	GBR3379	27	Joyride	Nick Andrews	92		18		23		51
61	IRL3307	31	Bad/Kilcullen	Stephan Hyde	92		36		22		34
62	GBR3545	71	Savage Sailing Team	Chris Savage	92		31		32		29
63	FRA3423	76	Morpheus	Edward Russo	93		37		31		25
64	GBR3038	119	TeamB4Ego,com2	Will Brooks	95		13		40		42
65	GBR3021	51	Here Comes Bod	Charlie Whelan	95	44		27		24
66	GBR3074	3	Tonic	Douglas Paton	95		27		33		35
67	FRA3609	2	Marcon Yachting	Louis Marcon	97	34		25		38
68	GBR3516	14	TeamB4Ego.com	Geoff Gritton	97	25		36		36
69	GBR3515	108	The Young Pretender	Callum Calder	98	24		53		21
70	GBR3215	79	Sail Navy	Darren Roach	98		24		27		47
71	GBR3267	77	Neilson Heart of Gold	Tom Hayhoe	99	22		47		30
72	GER3600	13	Isabella III	Reinhard Schroeder	99		23		46		30
73	IRL3484	33	Seriously Bonkers x 3	Martin Cuppage	103	26		44		33
74	GBR3319	12	Devils Advocate	Tony Jaffa	103	43		33		27
75	GBR3081	9	Prostate Cancer Charity	Ross Lang	107	36		28		43
76	GBR3335	24	Royal Signals	Stu Southan	108	31		38		39
77	POR3103	48	Viero	Piedade Colaco	110		38		45		27
78	GBR3069	66	Not just a number	Paul Hine	110	42		37		31
79	GBR3104	74	Retail Therapy	Charles Sheppard	111		40		38		33
80	GBR3056	100	Woohoo	Tom Davidson	114	45		41		28
81	GBR3088	6	Healthy1.co.uk	Ray Davies	114	40		34		40
82	ITA3598	96	Alghero Giorico Hotels	Alessandro Balzani	115	38		35		42
83	GBR3096	72	Red Kite	Roger Harford	116		30		47		39
84	AUS3224	28	Jester 3	Dave Bull	118	50		31		37
85	GBR3048	23	Control-Alt-Delete	Ann Ashworth	120		33		44		43
86	GBR3094	20	Xceptable	Ian Lievesley	123		52		39		32
87	UKR3522	41	Stemcor	Valentin Klymentyev	125		46		35		44
88	ITA3437	53	Lupi D'irlanda	Marco Sorgassi	125	39		42		44
89	IRL3062	40		Ronan Downing	131	37		49		45
90	GBR3531	87	Carnage	Nick Over	132		44		50		38
91	GBR3077	88	Skallywag	Rob Day	132	46		40		46
92	GBR3519	107	May contain nuts	John Greenaway	133	41		43		49
93	NED3470	82	Cube	Martijn Buitenhuis	134		42		43		49
94	GBR3309	43	Narwhal	David Bates	135		51		36		48
95	IRL3297	90	Sunday Brunch	Richard Tate	136	49		46		41
96	GBR3473	85	Sceptre	Nathan Bailey	138		50		48		40
97	GBR3366	11	Hooligan	Guy Broom	138		47		41		50
98	IRL3033	34	Blue Bird	Cathy MacAleavey	139	47		39		53
99	GRE3251	105	SailingHolidays.com	Ruairi Bradley	140		45		49		46
100	GBR3540	46	Water Music viii	Jonny Foot	143	51		45		47
101	GBR3368	45	Kapow	Nick Barnett	144	48		48		48
102	GBR3123	4	Mini Mayhem	Paul Craft	146		48		53		45
103	IRL3315	42	Sirius Black	Ken Hudson	152		49		51		52

HOWTH YACHT CLUB. LASER FROSTBITE WINTER 07/11/2010 RACE 1 LASER STANDARD: 1, Paul McMahon HYC; 2, Conor Greagsbey NYC; 3, Darrell Reamsbottom HYC; 4, Conor Murphy HYC; 5, Daragh Kelleher SSC; 6, Stephen Quinn HYC; LASER STANDARD APPRENTICE: 1, Conor Murphy HYC; 2, Brendan Costello MYC; 3, Brian Tyrrell HYC; 4, Conor Hopkins HYC; LASER STANDARD MASTER: 1, Paul McMahon HYC; 2, Conor Greagsbey NYC; 3, Darrell Reamsbottom HYC; 4, Daragh Kelleher SSC; 5, David Quinn HYC; 6, Evan Dolan NYC; LASER STANDARD GRAND MASTER: 1, Stephen Quinn HYC; 2, Robin Hegarty HYC; 3, Daragh Sheridan HYC; 4, Cathal Sheridan MYC; 5, Dermot Mowatt HYC; 6, Alan Carr SDC; LASER RADIAL: 1, Darragh Peelo MYC; 2, Vincent Varley MYC; 3, Robert Ferris HYC; 4, Simon Revill HYC; 5, Ciaran Costello MYC; 6, Carla Fagan 

HYC LASER FROSTBITE WINTER 07/11/2010 RACE 2 LASER STANDARD: 1, Robin Hegarty HYC; 2, Colm Cunningham HYC; 3, Conor Greagsbey NYC; 4, Paul McMahon HYC; 5, Conor Murphy HYC; 6, Stephen Quinn HYC; LASER STANDARD APPRENTICE: 1, Conor Murphy HYC; 2, Conor Hopkins HYC; 3, Brendan Costello MYC; 4, Brian Tyrrell HYC; LASER STANDARD MASTER: 1, Colm Cunningham HYC; 2, Conor Greagsbey NYC; 3, Paul McMahon HYC; 4, Darrell Reamsbottom HYC; 5, Richard Deane HYC; 6, Evan Dolan NYC; LASER STANDARD GRAND MASTER: 1, Robin Hegarty HYC; 2, Stephen Quinn HYC; 3, Dermot Mowatt HYC; 4, Conor Costello MYC; 5, Daragh Sheridan HYC; 6, Edward Ferris HYC

The strong tidal current and light and at times very shifty breeze proved to be the principal challenges on the first day of the Laser World Championships off Hayling Island. It left Irish Olympic campaigner James Espey in 52nd, the top third of the senior fleet. Ronan Cull is in 152nd and Paul McMahon is 157th in the 159 boat fleet.

For those sailors who had spent the preceding days, or – for some – weeks, learning venue's nuances idiosyncrasies it was intelligence gained about the tidal current which was of immediate value.

Racing Day 1 broke the pattern of blustery winds and intermittent rain which have prevailed through pre-championships training phase, replaced absolutely on cue by bluebird skies, summer sunshine and light to moderate mainly northerly breezes.

New Zealand's Michael Bullot, runner up at last year's World Championships in Halifax, Nova Scotia made the strongest start across the two testing opening races by posting a second and a first in the first of four days of scheduled Qualifying heats.

His early statement of intent saw the Aucklander ashore this afternoon with a lead of one point over Skandia Team GBR's Paul Goodison, the Olympic and defending World Champion who opened his regatta with third place and then won his second heat by a comfortable distance.

The shifting directions of the wind, oscillating through as much as 30 degrees at times in the Standard fleet's first race set the early test, but a big 50 degrees swing early in of the second contest, kept the racers and the race team on their toes; the second and third starts were delayed until the breeze settled.

According to Goodison patience was his key virtue through both races, waiting until changes in the breeze were sufficiently established enough to make a consideredmove, rather than falling to the temptation to try and benefit every small change.

And with up to a knot of current running and the direction of flow progressively changing, flowing to the NW at the start of Race 1 and moving to the NE tactical decisions were a movable feast, rich with opportunities to make gains and losses.

Australia's double world champion Tom Slingsby, who arrived late Saturday at Hayling Island fresh from winning the Etchells World Championships with America's Cup legend John Bertrand, showed no sign of ring rustiness when he won his first heat, but he admitted to trying to breaking from the pack's conventional thinking on the first downwind of the second race, and his error dropped him four boats to score an eighth.

Among those finishing their first day with results which were well ahead of their expectations were  Nicholas Heiner who won the first heat for the Yellow fleet, the biggest senior triumph yet for the young Dutch sailor who seeks to emulate or better the record of his 1996 Finn Olympic bronze medallist father, whilst Estonia's Karl-Martin Rammo paired up a third and first to match the first day 4pts tally of Goodison.

In the Junior World Championships Italy's Francesco Marrai leads the 118 boat fleet after posting a second and third. Competing for Ireland are Chris Penney, Aidan McLaverty and Hammy Baker.

Laser World Championships, Hayling Island GBR,
After Day 1
1 Michael Bullot (NZL) 1,2, 3pts
2 Paul Goodison (GBR) 3,1 4 pts
2 Karl-Martin Rammo (EST) 3,1 4pts
4 Luka Radelic (CRO) 2,2 4pts,
5 N Thompson (GBR) 2,3 5pts,
6 Pavlos Kontides (CYP) 4,3 7pts
7 Tom Slingsby (AUS) 1,8 9pts
8 Matthias Del Solar (CHI) 4,5 9pts
9 Andrew Murdoch (NZL) 6,4 10pts
10 Giacomo Bottolli (ITA) 9,4 13pts

Junior World Championships
1 Francesco Marrai (ITA) 2,3 5pts
2 Lukas Feuerherdt (GER) 1, 5 6pts
3 Thorbjoern Schierup (DEN) 3,3 6pts
4 Bogoslav Bugarin (CRO) 8,5, 13pts
5 Antony Munos (FRA) 14,2 16pts

Paul Goodison (GBR): "The first race started off in a really shifty breeze, up to 12 knots but it dropped back to five or six knots with some big swings in the wind. I think it was a bit of a patience game waiting for the wind to come back. It can be too easy to go chasing things, but the wind usually came back and so that was a bit of a patience game.
The second race got super light just before the start but at the gun there was probably 10-11 knots, that dropped to about 4-5 knots, but there was nearly a knot of tide and so it was very important to stay inside the laylines with that much of tide running. Quite a lot of the fleet got outside the port tack layline which meant them reaching in and pushing tide and that hurt them quite a lot.".
" We had three great weeks of breeze at Sail for Gold and for the two weeks since, and so here today it has been nice to remember how to do it in the light winds."
"After Sail for Gold I did three days here and then arrived her last week and have been sailing most days since then."

Andrew Maloney (NZL): "It was pretty shifty. I got a good start at the pin and then got a nice left shift and so managed to cross the fleet and from there it was just about sailing on the lifted tack and staying in the pressure on the downwind legs. It sounds easy but it wasn't!
The start and the first beat were vital and when you were out in front it got easier.
I was second at the first mark. He got back into the second left shift half way up the beat and that made the difference."

Nick Heiner (NED): "I had a really good start at the pin end, five boats from the pin and got a nice shift to the left and from there on was always ahead of the fleet, and could play with the shifts. Downwind I was not that fast, but I managed to stay ahead. But now I know what to work on for the coming days. It was a good start.
I like it here, with the current and the waves it is good fun, a bit like home in Schevenigen where I have trained a lot."

Tom Slingsby, (AUS): " I always say you can't win the regatta on the first day but you can lose and I managed not to do that which is good. It was a very tricky day with a lot of current. I got through pretty well, not as well as some but I am pretty happy with my day.
I have to say I was feeling a bit rusty on the way out to the start. Everyone else was kind of cruising around and I was racing trying to get used to it, trying to get the feel back. But all in all I sailed fine.
The first race was light, six to ten knots, I sailed quite well and rounded second and slowly caught the leader to win. The second race I was about fourth or fifth. But with the downwind the current was washing us straight across the course, I decided to take a bit of a risk and not join the train as we call it, and I broke away and unfortunately it did not work, but it could have been worse."

Karl-Martin Rammo (EST): "It was the best day of my life so far, off the charts. I managed to get in the front of the fleet early. First race I had a mediocre start but got to the front of the fleet by just sailing the shifts, I was kind of the middle but just got it right. It was so shifty and gusty.
The second race I had a really good start at the pin and tacked immediately and went pretty much to the right corner and was ahead at the upwind mark, had a mediocre downwind mark but has a good second upwind."

Nick Thompson (GBR): "All in all it was a pretty good start In the first race it was very shifty, probably averaging 10-12 knots at times but with big changes in pressure but it was nice to race in with lots of opportunities to come back. The second race was tough with strong current running which really skewed the course too much, but the race committee did a good job in moving the windward mark to square it up and so it was a decent race."