A frustrating opening day greeted sailors at the 23 ^rd Holland Regatta (24-28 May), as fierce conditions put paid to racing in four of the eleven contested classes here in Medemblik.

With rainstorms and 25-30 knot winds raging for most of the day, the 49ers, Ynglings and Stars saw their day s racing cancelled by mid-afternoon at this ISAF Grade 1 regatta, while the Tornado sailors also stayed ashore after staging a protest at being called to start racing at 1930hrs.

Winds dropped late in the day to allow for some evening racing, with the 470, Finn, Laser, Laser Radial, RS:X and Tornado classes all rescheduled to start at 1930hrs. Most classes duly set out for their race courses, but Tornado sailors from all nations stayed rooted in the boat park, unhappy with the race committee about the rescheduling of the day s racing.

Skandia Team GBR s Leigh McMillan explained: The general feeling in the Tornado fleet was that they were trying to start us too late especially when lots of fleets have got to be on the water again at nine o clock in the morning.

I think it comes down to an expectation of what conditions you race in, and I think in this case the sailors feel the organisation have made the error here and not the sailors who are not going sailing. It was very late in the day, the wind was still up and down, there were still some dark clouds around and generally the feeling was that we were not too happy about going out racing having been on hold for 12 hours of the day.

It s a class decision, McMillan continued. It s not my decision, but we stand together as a class and if that s the general feeling within the class then that s the way it is.

The sailors know what the limitations are on the boat not the people who are running the race who are sitting in their cosy boat. If the sailors feel it s not right to go racing in certain conditions then that s the way it should be, because we re the ones who have actually got to go out and do it.

On the water, the Skandia Team GBR sailors had a good start to the event, with Hyeres regatta gold medallist Ed Wright in the Finn and European Champion Paul Goodison in the Laser both posting wins in their opening races.

Laser Radial sailor Alison Young bronze medallist at the 2005 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships had an impressive start to her Holland campaign, finishing second in the first race. Young was second at the windward mark, and led at the leeward mark before being overtaken by China s 2005 Youth Worlds silver medallist, Xu Lijia, on the final run.

The British windsurfers started well Bryony Shaw is currently second in the women s RS:X fleet, with Lucy Horwood in eighth and Christine Johnstone in eleventh, while Olympic bronze medallist Nick Dempsey lies in equal fifth place in the RS:X men s event, with a third from his first race of the regatta

In the 470 Women s class, Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark crossed in fourth with Pippa Wilson and Sheena Craig in seventh, while development squad sailors Jonny McGovern and Tom Mapplebeck Skandia Team GBR s sole entry in the 470 men s class posted a 15 ^th in their race to finish the day equal 29 ^th.

Thursday could be another trying day for the sailors, with yet more strong winds and rain forecast.