The lead in the local boys’ fleet swapped hands on day two of the RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup on the Great Sound yesterday.

Overnight leader Sebastian Kempe was unable to reproduce the form that swept him into pole position the previous day and nearest rival Magnus Ringsted seized on the opportunity.

The 12-year-old thrived in the breezy conditions, producing a 9-10-4 record to climb three places from ninth to sixth overall and knock Kempe off the top.

“I like sailing in a strong breeze so these conditions have been pretty good,” Ringsted said. “I’m looking forward to two more days of sailing against some great sailors.”

Saltus student Kempe, who is second in the local fleet, dropped one spot back to seventh.

Bermuda’s Christian Ebbin moved up three places from thirteenth to tenth but fell outside of the local boys podium positions after being passed by the charging Ahzai Smith.

Smith surged ten places from nineteenth to ninth, tied on points with Ebbin, but ahead of his Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association national squad team-mate on a tiebreak.

Somers Kempe, the Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association vice-president, said he is delighted to see Ringsted, his son Sebastian, Smith and Ebbin in the top ten at the halfway stage of the regatta. “I am very pleased to see the progression of the Bermuda sailors,” Kempe said.

“The sailors have been travelling overseas and training very hard with their high-performance international coach and, while the regatta is not over yet, their results show the potential of the Boda National Squad to compete at a higher international level than in the past few years.”

Nicole Stovell maintained the lead among the local girls and fourth in the overall girls fleet, despite dropping one spot from fifteenth to sixteenth.

Likewise, Argentina’s Jose Rother is still the overall leader of the 38-boat fleet after making a clean sweep of victories in all three of yesterday’s races.

Moving into second was Uruguay’s Santiago Pachecho while Sweden’s Calle Lagerberg dropped to third.

The lead in the overall girls fleet also changed hands as Malta’s Antonia Schultheis replaced overnight leader Natascha Rast, the Swiss national champion, at the summit.

Schultheis is thirteenth overall, with Rast one spot back in fourteenth and Germany’s Anna Barth in fifteenth.

Schultheis’s younger brother Richard is also competing and is fourth overall.

The breeze is expected to be lighter today which would favour the smaller sailors and potentially cause a major shake-up of the leaderboard in the scheduled three races.