Bermuda's 14-year-old sailing sensation Jesse Kirkland led the Island's charge on the first day of the Colonial North American Optimist Championships yesterday.

Recently returned from a fourth place finish at the Optimist Worlds in Corpus Christi, Texas, Kirkland won the second of three races sailed in the Great Sound yesterday and when provisional results were posted last night he found himself on top of the leaderboard.

Some 113 youngsters from nine countries, including more than 20 from Bermuda, are competing in the 12-race championships. Ecuador's team was a late withdrawal.

Kirkland's victory in the second race was sandwiched between an eighth and a seventh leaving him with a total of 16 points.

His closest challenger, a Mexican, has 18 points with an Argentinian lying in third place on 19 points.

On a day when the wind blew between five and 10 knots, occasionally increasing to 14, several of Bermuda's entrants acquitted themselves well.

Other locals to shine included Edward Thompson who lies in 12th place with 40 points, Oliver Rihiiluoma in 19th place with 47 points and Elijah Simmons in 24th place with 52 points.

Event chairman Paul Doughty said last night: "It went extremely well. We had a squall in the afternoon but it didn't really affect the racing.

"Bermuda had a good day as a team.

"Jesse Kirkland was first in race two but we also had significantly high finishes from others. We had groups of Bermuda sailors finishing in the top 15 - five or six of them - and that bodes very well for team points."

Doughty, however, wouldn't go as far as to pick Kirkland as an outright favourite.

"The conditions are so shifty I wouldn't favour any one sailor. If anything it favours the lighter sailors, so he's relying to a certain extent on his local knowledge and also his tactical savvy - knowing where to be. He's very good at that."

Organisers are hoping to complete four more races in the individual regatta today.

"If we can get four in tomorrow (today) we will try, so then we would have seven complete. And that makes for a regatta," added Doughty.

"On Wednesday we have the team racing in the harbour at 10 a.m. when the the first and second teams of the larger countries will sail against each other. With the smaller countries we may put teams together from two different countries.

"Team racing is pretty good for people to spectate. They'll be able to watch all of the action in the harbour."

A rest day is planned on Thursday with the fleet - restricted to sailors aged 15 or younger - heading back out on the water on Friday and Saturday to complete the individual championships.