BVI Olympic hopefuls Alec Andersen and Chris Brockbank started day two after four tough races and claimed their first Bullet on day one. Photo: Provided

Jorge Lima and José Costa have claimed an early lead in the 49er European Championships on home waters in Porto, the second city of Portugal. With the 79-boat fleet split into three qualifying divisions for the first three days of competition, the inshore course favoured the right-hand side strongly throughout the day, especially so in light airs that never exceeded 8 knots.

While most of their competitors were battling for a start line advantage at the right-hand end near the committee boat, Lima and Costa decided to take their chances with a port-end start.

It paid off handsomely, with the Cascais team taking an early lead in both of the last two races of the day, and leading both heats from start to finish. Banking scores of 2,6,1,1, the Portuguese hold a 1-point advantage over Poland’s Lukasz Przybytek and Pawel Kolodzinski, who also sailed a brilliant day in their qualifying fleet with scores of 1,2,4,2.

BVI Olympic hopefuls Andersen and Brockbank started day two after four tough races and claimed their first Bullet on day one. “Four challenging races today! Our score line reads 7, 18, 25, and 1! We closed the day with our first bullet to date. And did it by holding off the legendary kiwis! Sitting 29th in the 79 boat fleet,” the pair said.

Even after an average first day, the Kiwis remain the hot favourites for overall victory, now on an unbroken winning streak of 16 major regattas since London 2012.

There were a further three races today, Wednesday and three on Thursday to end the qualifying series.

The pair of Brockbank and Anderson recorded a 14th, 19th and a disqualification for not getting to the starting line to end 49th, heading into the final day of qualification.