Nautica World Youth Sailing Championships, racking up his fourth straight victory in the boys single-handed Laser class yesterday.

Philipp Buchert of Germany and Brendan Casey of Australia trail the red-hot Ainslie.

Although finishing 11th and 14th in her two races, Bermuda's Megan Spurling was pleased with her progress in the girls single-handed class and now stands 17th out of 23 sailors.

Among local boys, a frustrated Jesse De Couto struggled after a respectable 16th place finish in his first race on Monday. Since then he's placed no higher than 31st and stands 29th overall.

"The competition is really strong and if you don't have a good start, well, you've had it,'' said a downcast De Couto after yesterday's racing.

Australian Justin Steel started the week with a strong start in the boys Laser II class in the first races, but watched helplessly as three other sailors leapfrogged ahead of him yesterday.

Steel was third after yesterday's first race but was then disqualified after a premature start in the next race. That enabled Luke Prokopavicius of New Zealand to finish first and Nicholas Rogers of Britain to take second. Rogers and Prokopavicius are now first and second in the division, while Nicholas Novara of France is third.

Bermuda's Duncan Simons is at the bottom of the class.

In Spurling's division, Kiri Wong of New Zealand was in a class of her own holding a comfortable lead over Petra Niemann of Germany.

"I was pleased with my performance, it was better than (Monday),'' said Spurling, who can still finish in the top half of the division.

Barbara Sneiders of Holland, wearing a bandage on her left ankle after tripping on a step following yesterday's racing, had better luck on the water, leading the double-handed class while Jessie Cuthburt of Britain and Sabine Haberger of Germany are second and third.

Nicki Crane of Bermuda found 13 to be her unlucky number finishing in that spot three consecutive times and is last in the double-handed division.

In the boys boardsailing division, local Martin Mello took small strides in his final race yesterday but is also at the bottom of the pack.

Full results -- Page 12