Giles Scott got his world title campaign off to the ideal start, winning the first and only race for the Finn class at the ISAF World Championships in Santander yesterday.

The Spanish venue served up improved conditions on the fifth day of the first Olympic qualification regatta, but still just 23 races of the scheduled 40 were possible as the wind refused to settle for the afternoon fleets, making for a long wait afloat as race committees tried to eke out every opportunity.

Portland-based Scott, whose Finn class was forced to wait a day to start their event after light winds prevented them from racing on Monday, saw off competition in his race from Danish Olympic silver medallist Jonas Hogh-Christensen and bronze medallist Jonathan Lobert from France to pick up his race win in the blue fleet.

With further racing proving impossible, he ended the day equal first with Australia’s Oliver Tweddell, who took the win in the yellow fleet, while the British Sailing Team’s Ed Wright was ninth in his race.

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark’s 470 women’s class managed to complete their programme of two races, with the Olympic silver medallists and 2012 world champions rounding off their qualifying series in pole position.

The RS:X men’s windsurfing fleet needed just one race to complete their qualifying series, and Weymouth’s reigning champion Nick Dempsey made it count.

He posted a third, and will head in the gold fleet series in third place, level on points with the second-placed Frenchman Pierre Le Coq and just four points off the yellow jersey.

Nick Thompson broke into the top three positions in the Laser fleet with a confident display of an eighth and a third from his two races.

Portland-based Alison Young crossed fourth in the only race for the Laser Radials, while Chloe Martin is currently the top- ranked British sailor in the women’s single-handed class, in seventh overall.

Across the other classes, the split fleets were unable to complete an even number of races, leaving the overnight scores imbalanced.

Luke Patience, also based on the island, and Elliot Willis, racing in the 470 men’s yellow fleet, managed two good scores of three and six, but they’re still short of one race to complete their four-race qualifying series, with the blue fleet two races short.

The 49erFX class got their regatta underway, with Wey-mouth-based Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth posting two and four from their opening two races.