The 2025 Youth Sailing World Championships in Vilamoura, Portugal, have opened under tricky conditions, with light and unpredictable breeze causing lengthy delays both ashore and afloat. Race counts across the six classes remain uneven as a result, leaving some fleets with a developing leaderboard while others have barely begun to form one. For a competition drawing more than 400 sailors from up to 70 nations, it has been an opening phase that rewards composure as much as outright boat speed.
Day 2 arrives with the standings fluid and New Zealand holding some promising early positions.
The brightest result so far for the New Zealand campaign belongs to Tessa Clinton and Amelia Higson in the female two person dinghy. Back-to-back fourth place finishes across their two races have them sitting third overall, directly behind France's Emy Combet and Juliette Peyre, who took both race wins to lead the fleet, and Great Britain's Sabine Potter and Merle Nieuwland in second. No medals are anywhere near being decided at this point, but the consistency Clinton and Higson have shown puts them squarely inside the leading group with a genuine shot at the podium as qualifying continues.
The male and mixed skiff has also produced two races, with Italy's Giuseppe Montesano and Enrico Coslovich out in front. Australia's Sebastian Cheng and Jacob Marks are second, and Poland's Szymon Kolka and Bartosz Zmudzinski third. New Zealand's Will Leech and William Mason recorded a fourth and a 16th to sit ninth overall. With margins tight throughout and only two races completed, there is plenty of room for the New Zealand pairing to advance as conditions settle.
The female skiff is only one race old. Great Britain's Lila Edwards and Amelie Hiscocks hold the early lead, followed by Italy's Bianca Marchesini and Lucia Finato, then Poland's Antonina Puchowska and Alicja Dampc. New Zealand's Bella Jenkins and Jess Handley are eighth at this stage, with the leading Australian crew currently fifth.
Three races have been completed in the male ILCA 6, where Italy's Alessandro Cirinei leads from Brazil's Francisco Dal Ri and the Czech Republic's Jiri Tomes. Tom Pilkington sits 25th overall for New Zealand after a disrupted opening sequence, while Australia's Healy Ryan is 16th. The female ILCA 6 sees Germany's Mirja Dohle at the head of the fleet, ahead of Spain's Irene de Tomás and Italy's Marina Murri. Chloe Turner is eighth overall for New Zealand, one place ahead of Australia's Caterina Meyer, keeping her well within reach of the leading group as more races are sailed.
Among the foiling fleets, Israel's Peleg Rajuan leads the male iQFOiL after three races, with Italy's Mattia Saoncella second and Slovenia's Val Erzen third. Ben Rist is 20th for New Zealand, with Australia's Rory Meehan sixth. Two races have been sailed in the female iQFOiL, where Italy's Medea Marisa Falcioni leads, Taisia Stopchenko (Authorised Neutral Athlete, AIN) sits second, and Turkey's Nurhayat Guven is third. Daniella Wooldridge is 15th overall for New Zealand, with Australia's Amelia Wilson 12th.
The male and mixed two person dinghy has completed one race, with Ukraine's Sviatoslav Madonich and Dmytro Karabadzhak leading, followed by France's Simon Prot and Swan Berier Joyet, then Japan's Mihiro Okada and Haruto Watanabe. New Zealand's Cameron Brown and Oliver Stone are 10th. In the mixed two person multihull, France's Marius Praud and Emilie Mansouri head the standings after three races, with Italy's Lorenzo Sirena and Alice Dessy second and the American pairing of Dylan Tomko and Casey Small third. Australia's Samuel Dalton and Emma Webb are ninth.
After Day 1 the regatta is still finding its feet, with uneven race counts across the fleets and improving forecasts pointing to more completions in the days ahead. For New Zealand the early signs are good: Clinton and Higson have put themselves near the front of their fleet, and several other Kiwi sailors are well placed to move forward as racing intensifies and schedules normalise.
