Kelsey Durham produced two impressive podium finishes on the opening day of racing at the International One Design World Championship in Norway on Monday.

The 30-year-old helmsman, who is making his debut at the regatta, finished third and second in the first two races to take the early lead in the overall 20-boat fleet.

However, he and fellow crew Nico Stefani, Heath Foggo, Roger Beach and Michael Richold lost momentum in the day’s final race on the windward-leeward racecourse as an eleventh-place finish dropped them to second.

“Good day and I was leading until the last race, where we had a bad race,” Durham told The Royal Gazette.

“But all in all it was a good day.

The Bermudian’s day was not without incident after being forced to swap boats after sustaining damage to the rigging prior to the start of the first race.

“When we first went out we broke a boat, but it wasn’t our fault,” Durham said.

“The forestay broke so we had to go back and get a different boat, so we really couldn’t tune it in that much. We had a lot of obstacles to get over today.”

Defending champion and multiple Bermuda International Invitational Race Week winner John Burnham topped the leaderboard after the opening three races by three points over Durham, with the trio of Tom Fremont-Smith, Peter Wickwire and Roy Weedontied tied for third another two points back.

Also flying Bermuda’s flag at the championship is Patrick Cooper and crew Martin Siese, Andrew Butterworth, Bill McNiven and Craig Davis. They posted a 14-16-4 record to return ashore in tenth.

The start of racing at this week’s IOD World Championship was delayed by a day after organisers cancelled the opening two races on Sunday to prevent boats from being damaged by winds exceeding 20 knots and choppy seas.

Racing finally got under way on Monday in moderate breezes, which gradually decreased a bit towards the end of the day.