Racing is underway at 2015 Rio Test Event, but all the Tauranga sailors had to watch laser sailor Andy Maloney starting on the opening day of the highly anticipated Olympic dress rehearsal regatta being sailed over eight days in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Start dates for the different events are spread across two days, making Andy Maloney the only kiwi racing today, and he has made a solid start.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke in action at the 49er Euro champs in Port last month. Photo: João Ferrand

The 38 boat fleet sailed two races in light and challenging conditions on the Ponte Course and Maloney placed 11th in the opener, and 6th in the second, to lie 6th overall at the end of day one. Only two sailors returned two single-digit results today and Maloney can be pleased to come away from day one within the top six of the fleet.

'Our first race was pretty light breeze – 5-6 knots and very shifty, very patchy and it was pretty hard to read,” says Andy.

'I had a good first beat and then the second beat there was big differences in pressure from the different sides of the course so I lost quite a few boats, but it was still an okay result.

'The second race the breeze had filled in a bit, but again it was about playing the shifts and keeping your head out of the boat looking for the pressure and I had a decent race, so it was good.”

On day two the Laser fleet will be on the Niteroi course outside the entrance of Rio's Guanabara Bay.

Tomorrow the entire NZL Sailing Team contingent will be on water. Racing starts on for Finn class on the Ponte course, Men's and Women's 470 at the Pai course, 49er and 49erFX at the Escola Naval course, and Nacra 17 at the Copacabana course.

Men's 49er crew Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are the crew to beat in the skiff class. They're the last fleet to get underway with a scheduled start time of 3:30pm on the central Guanabara Bay course known as Escola Naval and, if conditions allow, they will sail three races of around 30 minutes each.

'We're at 3:30 in the afternoon so it's a pretty late start given conditions in Rio, it normally gets dark around 5:30pm,” says Blair Tuke. 'It's going to be a cruisy morning for us and hopefully we get a few races away in the afternoon. We're really looking forward to getting out there and getting stuck in.”

The forecast is for similar conditions tomorrow and Blair says they're anticipating between 8 and 13 knots normal bay sea breeze on their course area.

'We just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings check the forecast in the morning and reassess again in the afternoon. It's always different out there and we'll just see what the day brings and do the best we can in those conditions.”

Given the late start Peter and Blair plan to take it easy in the morning.

'We'll probably sleep in,” says Peter. 'We practiced getting up late today, normally we'd be down at the venue around midday, but tomorrow we'll come down about 2 o'clock. We've got a few free hours in the morning, so we'll rest and use the time… it's going to be a long week.”

The Olympic format means only one boat per qualifying nation and the 49er class is restricted to 20 boats.

'It changes the racing a bit, but we'll go into racing with the same approach; trying to do the little things well, get off the line and get the first shift and just all those little things that get you around the track quickly,” says Peter.

The remainder of the NZL Sailing Team, including reigning Olympic champions in the Women's 470 crew Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, will start racing at around 1pm tomorrow.

The NZL Sailing Team current standings

6thAndy Maloney – Laser (11, 6)

Starting tomorrow…

Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie - Women's 470 (Women's double-handed dinghy)

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke - 49er (Men's skiff)

Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech - 49erFX (Women's skiff)

Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox - Men's 470 (Men's double-handed dinghy)

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders - Nacra 17 (Mixed multihull)

Josh Junior - Finn (Men's heavy-weight dinghy)