Australian Sailing Team crews have reveled in the strong breeze on day three of Sail Sydney with race wins for Tom Slingsby in the Laser class, RS:X sailor Jessica Crisp, 49er crew Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen and Laser Radial sailor Krystal Weir.

Slingsby roared into the lead in the Laser class with three wins from three races as the breeze topped 26 knots on Sydney harbour.

Starting the day 15 points behind overnight leader Tom Burton, Slingsby powered ahead with the three wins moving him seven points clear of second placed Jeemin Ha of Korea with Burton seven points further back.

“Today was a great day results wise but I’m going to be in a bit of pain tonight, I haven’t hiked like that for a while,” said Slingsby.

“In the first and third races I had fairly comfortable wins but in the second I only got ahead of Mihelic from Croatia in the last 100 metres so it was pretty tight,” he said. “The breeze was really strong today and it was good to put myself back into contention with three good races.”

“We’ve got another three races scheduled for tomorrow so I’ll have a look at the points overnight and check out the forecast and work out what I’ve got to do,” he said.

Jessica Crisp moved into the lead in the RS:X women’s class following two good opening races for the day where she finished first and third.

With three races scheduled for the final day of the regatta, the three-time Olympian has a two point lead over Flavia Tartaglini of Italy with Norway’s Jannicke Stalstrom two points further back.

Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen won two out of three races in the 49er class but will have their work cut out for them on the final day to overtake leaders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke of New Zealand.

The Australian’s trail the Kiwis by five points and will need to win the three final races and put a boat between themselves and Burling and Tuke in one to take home back-to-back Sail Sydney titles.

“We had plenty on out on the course today,” said Jensen. “In the first race it was about 15 knots and fairly flat but by the time the third race came around it was blowing about 22 knots and was really choppy with a lot of traffic due to the Wednesday afternoon yacht races.”

“We sailed pretty well to win the first and third races but unfortunately had a swim in the second one,” he said. “We had an incident with the Kiwis and weren’t sure if we were in the wrong or not so did some turns and when we were going for the gybe had a capsize.”

“We’ve got a bit of work to do tomorrow but we’ll sail the first race and then see what we have to do to take the win,” said Jensen.

Krystal Weir put her regatta back on the right track with a first and a second place in the two Laser Radial races on Wednesday morning.

Weir has climbed to eighth overall, only eight points off third position with three final races scheduled for Thursday.

“I went out there and sailed my own race today and managed to put it all together when it mattered,” said Weir. “I’ve been trying out some new techniques and it has taken three days to get it right but it all went to plan today.”

“In both races I finally got off the line cleanly and then hit the accelerator and I’m looking forward to getting back out on the water on Thursday,” she said.

In the Skud 18 class Daniel Fitzgibbon and Rachael Cox are in second position, seven points behind leaders, World Champions Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell of Great Britain. Fellow Australians Ame Barnbrook and Lindsay Mason are currently in fourth position.