Placing second to last in the first race of the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup finals marked the beginning of a frustrating day for the NZL Sailing team in Bermuda yesterday.

They got caught in traffic in the first race – and copped a penalty in race two for being over the line at the start of the race, and another penalty in race three for interference on the boundary.

They recovered to work their way through the fleet in the final race to finish second, leaving the NZL Sailing Team fifth after the first day on 18 points. The Kiwis went into the finals as one of the favourites but are now playing catch-up.

Land Rover BAR Academy are at the top of the leaderboard on 28 points after collecting a pair of seconds and a win. They have a seven-point lead over Switzerland's Team Tilt and Team France Jeune in third.

Light and shifty winds of 7-10 knots made life difficult for chasing boats as the leading crews tended to clear out from the rest of the fleet. More breeze is forecast for tomorrow, which will be welcomed by the NZL Sailing Team who went into the finals with high hopes after topping their group in qualifying last week.

'It was a tough day out there,” says skipper Logan Dunning Beck. 'It was really difficult to keep the boat going.

'The starts were brutal, with eight boats on the startline. We were getting tangled in the pack, who had their claws out, and we just couldn't climb our way through.

'We battled like that for two races and then finally cleaned up our act in the last race and managed to get some clearance off the rest of the fleet to come back from a pretty bad start to finish second.

'It looks like there will be wind again tomorrow so we will be racing for sure and we will be on the comeback. We will keep pushing tomorrow and hopefully Lady Luck will swing our way.”

Three more races are scheduled tomorrow, with 10 points on offer for the winning boat. The NZL Sailing Team will need three top results and hope BAR finish back in the pack in a couple of races to have any hope of winning the Youth America's Cup.

The Youth America's Cup is for sailors aged 18-24 and was established to create a pathway to the America's Cup. New Zealand won the inaugural event in San Francisco in 2013 and four members of that team - Peter Burling, Blair Tuke, Andy Maloney and Guy Endean – graduated to Emirates Team New Zealand.

Standings after the first three races in the finals of the Red Bull Youth America's Cup in Bermuda today:

Land Rover BAR Academy (GBR) – 28 points

Team Tilt (SUI) – 21

Team France Jeune – 21

Artemis Youth Racing (SWE) – 20

NZL Sailing Team – 18

Team BDA (BER) – 18

Spanish Impulse – 15

SVB Team Germany - 14

Race One Results

TeamBDA (10pts)

Land Rover BAR Academy (9pts)

Spanish Impulse by IBEROSTAR (8pts)

Team France Jeune (7pts)

Team Tilt (SUI) (6pts)

Artemis Youth Racing (5pts)

NZL Sailing Team (4pts)

SVB Team Germany (3pts)

Race Two Results

Team France Jeune (10pts)

Land Rover BAR Academy (9pts)

Team Tilt (SUI) (8pts)

Artemis Youth Racing (7pts)

SVB Team Germany (6pts)

NZL Sailing Team (5pts)

Spanish Impulse by IBEROSTAR (4pts)

TeamBDA (3pts)

Race Three Results

Land Rover BAR Academy (10pts)

NZL Sailing Team (9pts)

Artemis Youth Racing (8pts)

Team Tilt (SUI) (7pts)

SVB Team Germany (6pts)

TeamBDA (5pts)

Team France Jeune (4pts)

Spanish Impulse by IBEROSTAR (3pts)