Peter Burling and Blair Tuke dominate their rivals on day three of the 2016 49er World Championships in Clearwater Florida, winning all four of their heats on day three of the six day regatta, and now show a clean-streak of five straight wins as the regattas moves into day four.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, four wins in one day.

'We had an absolutely awesome day,” says Tauranga sailor Peter Burling. 'We've been waiting for a long time to get some good racing in, you know it was good to get out there and get one race in on the first day, but today the forecast looked really nice and we managed to get one race in the offshore breeze to start with, which was a little more shifty and lighter, but then the really nice sea breeze filled in and we had three in pretty perfect skiff sailing conditions.”

In making the transition from heavy to light airs, Blair Tuke says the way the rig is set up is completely different.

'The first day we raced in 15 knots and really big seas with breaking waves and it was pretty full-on hard boat handling to just keep the rig in the air, so to change the mind set and change the way we set the boat up and how we approach the races for today. To get four wins out of it is pretty awesome, and something I don't think we've ever done ever before.”

'We're excited for tomorrow and get a few more races in and hopefully keep the hammer down.”

With four points the kiwis have the lead from Australian pair Nathan Outteridge and Ian Jensen who also sailed well today to lie six points adrift of NZL Sailing Team's Burling and Tuke. Great Britain's John Pink and Stuart Bithell are lying third a further five points behind the Aussies.

Isaac McHardie and Trent Rippey, Aon Fast Track Squad sailors, are well placed to make the cut and race in gold fleet after a solid day on the water today including two top ten results. They're currently in 20th position in the 68-strong fleet.

Also racing at Clearwater are the women's skiff and mixed multihull, vying for their 2016 world titles.

In the 49erFX Alex Maloney and Molly Meech had a solid day to lie 6th overall, while in the Nacra 17 Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders have lifted to 18th.

Alex Maloney and Molly Meech, who come to Florida straight off the back of a recent victory at 2016 Sailing World Cup Miami, are currently lying 6th overall at the end of day three. In today's three races Maloney and Meech placed 4th, 7th and 2nd and lie equal on 12 points with the Dutch crew in 5th.

With the top placed crews all very close on points and plenty of racing yet to come the kiwis will be pleased with their overall consistency so far.

Despite their young age, the Aon Fast Track 49erFX pairing of Erica Dawson, 21 and Ellie Copeland 20, are demonstrating that they can foot it with the world's best and are on track to better their 2014 49erFX World Championships result of 34th.

In today's racing Dawson and Copeland placed 8th, 10th and 11th to now lie 15th overall.

In the Nacra 17 World Championships, being sailed at the same venue, two races were added today.

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders of the NZL Sailing Team are now in 18th overall after changes were made to yesterday's scoring and today's two races are added. Jones and Saunders placed 18th in their first race today, and then 30th in the subsequent race.

Olivia Mackay and Micah Wilkinson, the young Aon Fast Track Squad pair, are just behind in 19th overall after placing 9th and 20th on the water today.

Racing resumes tomorrow in Clearwater with qualifying racing continuing longer than planned with a minimum of six heats required before splitting the fleets into gold and silver for finals racing. Medal races are planned for Sunday 14th February.

New Zealand's current standings…

49er World Championship

1st Peter Burling & Blair Tuke (1, 1, 1, 1, 1)

20th Isaac McHardie & Trent Rippey (11, 22, 29, 9, 3)

35th Logan Dunning Beck & Jack Simpson (22, 7, 13, 17, 21)

42nd Markus Somerville & Josh Porebski (DNF, 29, 22, 7, 6)

49erFX World Championship

6th Alexandra Maloney & Molly Meech (6, 4, 7, 2)

15th Erica Dawson & Ellie Copeland (4, 8, 10, 11)

Nacra 17 Championship

18th Gemma Jones & Jason Saunders (27, 22, 2, 24, 8, 18, 30)

19th Olivia Mackay & Micah Wilkinson (12, 26, 27, 13, 21, 9, 20)

Links

There are two main websites where you can follow all the action. http://www.saillife.com/ for the Nacra17 and http://49er.org/event/2016-world-championship/ for all 49er and 49erFX updates.