Aust 49er crew surges up ladder at worlds

Australians Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen have overcome light conditions to surge up the leaderboard on day three of the world 49er sailing championships in Florida.

The pair resumed competition on Thursday (Friday morning AEDT) in 15th place after bad weather prevented racing in the men's skiff class the previous day.

The Olympic gold medallists recorded a win and a second, third and fourth place in a full day three of competition to climb to second.

Jensen said the Australians were able to use light conditions in their favour, with similar weather expected on Friday.

"The first race was really light and then it swung around and we got a light sea breeze for the rest of the day," he said.

"We were just executing good starts, going the right way and the speed seemed pretty good.

"We seem to be going fast in the light stuff, which is an area we struggled in at the last worlds."

The pair, which will represent Australia at the Rio Olympics in August, trail New Zealanders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke with three days left of competition.

New South Wales duo Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin sit third in the Nacra 17 championships after scoring a win in their last race of Thursday.

"We sailed a consistent day," Waterhouse said.

"It was quite soft and variable out there so we just used that to try and gain some points from the few errors yesterday."

49erFX crew Tess Lloyd and Caitlin Elks are the highest ranked Australians in the women's skiff, currently in 13th.