The drip start of the New Zealand Olympic sailing effort continues with only the women's 49er crew of Tauranga sailor Molly Meech and Alexandra Maloney yet to start competition.

Molly's brother Sam has been sailing in the Laser fleet since Tuesday and was joined on the water overnight by Tauranga sailon Jason Saunders in the Nacra17 cat with Gemma Jones.

Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie in the women's 470 went from the top of the leaderboard to the bottom when a protest on their first race was upheld. Supplied Photo.

Sam is in seventh place after three days of racing. He placed 14^th and 17^th in his two races in what he says is a disappointing performance.

'Yesterday was really good, I felt like I got good starts and executed my plan, but today was disappointing. It was the kind of conditions where I felt like I could go really well and I just didn't get it right,” says Sam.

He's still well inside the top ten, and a closer look at the leader board shows he's bunched close on points with the sailors just ahead of him, and with another four qualifying races to go there is plenty of opportunity to regain ground.

The Nacra 17 is racing on the spectator friendly but notoriously patchy Pao course due to it being situated in the lee of Sugarloaf in the south westerly conditions.

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders came through race one with a 9th place, then placed 15th in race two, which sees them lying 13th overall. Three races were scheduled but only two were raced. The Nacra fleet will be back racing tomorrow.

Both New Zealand 470 sailing crews have opened their Rio 2016 campaign with good results on a day that provided challenging and wide-ranging conditions.

Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie in the women's 470 went from the top of the leaderboard to the bottom when a protest on their first race was upheld.

A protest from Austria over a port/starboard (right of way) incident soon after the start of the race saw them take a 21 point penalty which busted them down to 10^th.

'Jo, Polly and I are gutted about this decision. The girls truly thought they did not infringe,” says coach Nathan Handley.

'However, they sailed very well today and will take that knowledge with them into day two of competition. There is a lot more racing to come yet.”

The Women's 470 are scheduled to race ten qualifying races ahead of a medal race on Wednesday 17 August. After race three each crew can discard their poorest result from their overall points tally.

'We like that sort of tricky racing, it should have been a better day really first race we had a bit of a stuff up but it was nice to finish off with a good race and know that we can put it all together,” says Jo.

'We're happy with the day, but we've still got a long way to go.”

'We didn't follow through with our race plan as such, and we're happy to right the wrongs in the second one,” says Polly.

Only the Japanese crew had a better day and are two points out in front, while Slovenia is lying 3rd at the end of day one. They race again tomorrow with another two races scheduled to start at 1pm in Rio.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox also made a solid start in the Men's 470 event opening the regatta with a 2nd place.

In race two, they placed 10th and among a group of four nations all holding 12 points effectively lying 3rd equal while Croatia leads and Australia is 2nd.

'Today was pretty tough conditions out there so to come away with two solid races is a good benchmark to start from so we're really happy with the day and look forward to the week to come,” says Dan after racing.

'You had to have your eyes out the boat, there were crazy rain showers coming through the course. A few snakes and ladders, so we took a bit of a hit now and then, but also gained so we'll take that for the first day,” says Paul.

In the Finn class Josh Junior was unable to gain much ground up the leader board on day one of competition in the heavy-weight single-handed men's class.

Two 14ths from two races today have Junior placed 20th overall, and he will be looking to turn things around when he returns to the bay tomorrow for two more races.

NZL Sailing Team current standings

2nd Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (Women's 470) (6, 1)

3rd Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox (Men's 470) (2, 10)

7th Sam Meech (Laser) (19, 3, 5, 6, 14, 17)

13th Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders (Nacra 17) (9, 15)

20th Josh Junior (Finn) (18, 24UFD, 14, 14)

The 49ers have their first race on Saturday.

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