Besides their skills and talent, the calm sea with wind speeds of between 8 to 20 knots enabled "Hooligan" to lead after collecting three points from three wins in three rounds at the Harbour Race, The Royal Langkawi Yacht Club in Kuah.

"Hooligan" was the winner of the Royal Phuket Cup in Thailand last month.

The team's arch rival "Hi Fi" of Hong Kong skippered by former Olympian sailor Neil Pryde from New Zealand came in second after accumulating six penalty points.

However, the highlight of the day was the good start by "Uranus" of the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN), skippered by Mohamad Razali Mansor, which won the first and second races and finished third in the third round. "Uranus" gained 11 penalty points to stay ahead of two teams – "Utarid" of RMN skippered by Ishak Jab (12 points) and "Jelik II" of Hong Kong skippered by Frank Pong (13 points).

Mohamad Razali told reporters that he would maintain the same style of sailing and hoped for a better weather condition tomorrow.

"We were lucky on the first day but the challengers will certainly live up to expectations and the competition is going to be tougher.

We got 14 crews who are newbies. I'm quite happy with today's performance. We need to face seven more races and luckily this year, we are using a new yacht. It is much lighter," he said.

All participants will continue in the Open Sea Challenge tomorrow morning.

Thirty-six teams from 12 countries including Germany, England, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore are taking part in the RLIR 2012. — Bernama