Mark Watson and the crew of Tiburon enjoyed a good start to the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup as strong winds and sail problems brought a premature end to the first day of racing in the waters off Newport, Rhode Island yesterday.

The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club entry came from the back of the fleet to finish impressively against a 20-strong field that includes some of the best sailors and crews from 14 nations around the world.

While other skippers struggled in the fluctuating winds, and suffered equipment problems, Watson guided his boat to fifth place in the regatta's first race and believes his team are in a good position ahead of today's racing.

"Some of the best sailors from around the world are here, and all the boats are very well campaigned," he said.

"The boats themselves are very evenly paced, so it's a tight fleet, and to have finished fifth in the first race puts us in a pretty good spot for the morning, and I think we're all in a pretty positive frame of mind about how we'll do tomorrow.

"After only getting one race in, my guess is we'll have at least three if not four races (today), I think it's going to be a long day of racing.

"While the breeze will be slightly down from today the forecast is still for 15-20 (knots) and that's plenty of breeze to get the boats going around the race course."

Yesterday's heavy winds caused several problems out on the course, and forced the race committee to call a halt to proceedings early, and while several boats limped back to the harbour, Tiburon escaped unscathed.

In fact, the luck was with Watson, and a crew that includes Bermuda Olympian Peter Bromby onboard as tactician as well as Peter Henderson (spinnaker trimmer), Kevin Horsfield, Ben Nicholls (mainsail trimmer) and Will Thompson (bow) for much of the day, including a shift in the wind that came at just the right time for the American skipper.

"We were one of the fortunate ones," said Watson.

"I think that has a lot to do with being on our own boat, and having a very well prepared boat.

"It was pretty breezy at the start and we had a pretty tight hole to get into off the starting line, so we had a reasonably good start and got flushed out to the right, and came back right about the time that the wind shifted to the left, and so everybody who was on the left side of the race course was in a good spot, and everyone who was on the right side was in a tough spot.

"We happened to be heading straight at the mark when we tacked back, so we were in a pretty good spot.

"I think we rounded the windward mark in seventh place, and then managed to chip away a few boats going downwind.

"We kind of held our own position and then chipped away a few more boats on the second downward leg, and that was pretty exciting. We jibbed just inside the boat from Germany and we were able to cross the finish line literally a boat length ahead of them so we picked up another spot and finished fifth right at the end."

Yesterday's first race was won by the Royal Canadian Yacht Club who are skippered by Olympic silver medallist and America's Cup skipper Terry McLaughlin. They edged the host team's boat Arethusa, skippered by Phil Lotz. Making up the top five were Royal Cort in third, and Japan Sailing Federation who placed fourth.

The regatta is being sailed over four days.