JAMIE LEA AND RICHARD THOMPSON LEAD SNIM AFTER DAY ONE

Sixty nine boats from nine nations are gathered in the French Mediterranean port of Marseille to take part in the SNIM Regatta, the first event of the 2002 European Ranking Series.

Day one brought beautiful clear skys and bright sunshine but a cold offshore breeze. Racing got underway at 3pm in a shifty 15-20 knots with occasional gusts up to 25 knots. Unfortunately the unstable wind dropped during the second half of race one and by race two was under 8 knots making for some difficult sailing and a long day on the water.

2001 World Ranking winner Richard Thompson, with helm Jamie Lea and their Black Seal team from Britain, put in a fantastic performance to win the first race and take second in race two giving them the overall lead at the end of day one. France's Jean Francois Cruette aboard Scutum also had a wonderfully consistent day taking third in both races to end up a comfortable second overall.

Bruno Jourdran and team Pokemon won the second race and were eighth in the first race putting them in third overall ahead of Italy's Silvio Santini, helming for Gregor Stimpfle, and Switzerland's Tixiano Nava, who has come in to replace Flavio Favini (who is taking time out from Melges sailing for an America's Cup campaign) in Franco Rossini's World Championship winning crew.

Francois Lebourdais got off to a great start with a second in race one but struggled in the lighter conditions of race two and ended up thirteenth, just enough to keep him in sixth overall.

With three more days of racing to go the regatta is wide open and we can expect some extremely close racing. Full results are available from www.lanautique.com.