Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell made a disastrous start to their 2003 Star campaign when they finished the first day's racing in the 2003 Rolex Miami Olympic Class Regatta in Florida in 52nd place.

The pair, who made history in 2002 when they became the first ever British sailors to win the Star class world championships, faced stiff competition in the 68 boat class, including some of the top names in American sailing.

Percy, from Winchester, and Mitchell, who finished fifth in the last Miami OCR, were also up against Lymington's Jez Fanstone, the skipper of 2001/02 Volvo Ocean Race entry Team News Corp, who is sailing with Luke Chapman. They too made a disappointing start, finishing in 49th place after day one.

Lymington's Ben Ainslie decided against competing in the Finn class in which he won the European and World titles in 2002, choosing instead to stay in Europe and train.

His successor in the Lasers, Paul Goodison, was hoping to make it a title hat-trick in Miami, after previous wins in 2001 and 2002. After the first day's racing, he was in impressive form, finishing third, one point ahead of Team GBR rival Mark Howard.

Also looking for a good result was Tornado pair Hugh Styles and Adam May from Hamble who are ranked number four in the world, despite a disappointing start to their 2004 Olympic campaign.

After closing last year on a high, following their win last December in the US Nationals, they have made an encouraging start to 2003 by finishing the first day in Miami in fifth position.

Last year's winners Lars Guck and Jonathan Farrar from America will be aware of the progress of Styles and May but the competition was set to be tough as the European champions and world silver medallists Olivier Backes and Laurent Voiron of France and Olympic Test Event champions, Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher of Austria are both competing in Miami.

The regatta, featuring 11 Olympic classes and the two Paralympic classes attracted over 470 athletes representing 30 countries to assess the competition as the Olympic and Paralympic Games becomes ever closer.

Racing finishes tomorrow.