KEY POINTS:
New Zealand enjoyed another supreme day on the water yesterday and look a sure bet to claim champions in the open and women's class at the 420 yachting world championships.
Defending world champions Carl Evans and Peter Burling won the day's first two races in the open class
and were second in the third behind countrymen Rowan Swanson and Bruce Kennedy.
Evans and Burling are in charge of the event they won in the Canary Islands six months ago and, with a nine-point lead, they will be almost out of sight if they can maintain their current form today.
Consecutive world titles for the 16-year-olds will have them thinking about graduating to the Olympic class 470s and, with these gifted sailors, you can't rule out the possibility they will appear in Beijing.
It's more likely that London in 2012 are the games for them to make their mark on the biggest stage but, as the current New Zealand Sailors of the year, they have shown themselves capable of achieving ahead of their time.
"We are pretty happy with the day," said Burling. "It would be great to win again."
Swanson and Kennedy are now third, leaving New Zealand crews in the top three places.
Simon Cooke and Scott Illingworth, with 14 points, are in second place, familiar territory for those two as they also finished second in the Canaries.
In the women's field, Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie ended the day with a handy lead of 10 points from fellow Kiwis Sarah Bilkey and Rosie Sargisson.
It was just reward for some consistent sailing, as Aleh and Powrie have not finished outside the top three in any of the six races so far.
They were second in the first race of the day behind Bilkey and Sargisson, a result that put the latter crew in the overall lead. But in the second race, Aleh and Powrie claimed their second win of the series with Bilkey and Sargisson finishing a disappointing 11th.
There was still, however, further good news for New Zealand as Stephanie Hazard and Cindy Hamilton produced easily their best performance of the series to grab second place to leave them 12th overall with Shelley Hesson and Bianca Barabarich-Bacher finishing the day in third spot.
With a maximum of six races still to come, Aleh and Powrie are positive but cautious about their prospects. Their caution stems from the fact neither would count themselves as experts when it comes to sailing 420s.
Both are focusing on the Laser Radial Class with Aleh rated New Zealand's best prospect at the Beijing Olympics.
"It was a great day. I really enjoyed it," said Powrie. "I think everyone wants a bit more distance but we are very happy with where we are. We didn't have a goal in terms of a placing. We just wanted to improve our performance and enjoy the experience.
"There are plenty of crews still in this. We obviously know Sarah and Rosie pretty well but when you are on the water, you are racing. They are just the opposition so I don't think it makes any difference that they are New Zealanders."