Ben Ainslie wins all 3 opening SailGP races in Sydney

 After the first race day of the new SailGP season on Sydney Harbor, it was Britain's Ben Ainslie 3, everybody else 0.

Ainslie picked up 30 points for wins in all three opening races Friday.

Defending champion Tom Slingsby and Australia finished second to Ainslie in the first race and third in the next race. Slingsby's crew is the only unchanged one from the first season.

Britain leads the standings after the opening day while Slingsby and Japan, skippered by Nathan Outteridge, were tied for second with 23 points each. Skipper Rome Kirby had the United States in fourth place with 19 points, followed by Spain's Phil Robertson with 15.

Racing among the seven-entry competition continues in Sydney on Saturday with two fleet races, followed by a final match race between the top two point leaders.

Slingsby is coming off a dominating performance in SailGP's inaugural season, including taking the $1 million, winner-take-all match-race finale against fellow Aussie Outteridge.

Ainslie joined SailGP while also leading INEOS Team UK in the America's Cup. His SailGP crew is made up of sailors from his America's Cup crew, which will be competing in three preliminary regattas leading up to the 36th America's Cup in Auckland, New Zealand, early next year.

Ainslie has a special affinity for Sydney — he won the first of his four straight Olympic gold medals — and the second of five straight — at Sydney in 2000.

After Sydney, SailGP has stops in San Francisco, New York, Cowes, England and Copenhagen.

The first America's Cup World Series, which will mark the debut of foiling 75-foot monohulls, will be in late April in Cagliari, Sardinia, followed by Portsmouth in early June and Auckland in December.

The Prada Cup for challengers is in January and February, and the America's Cup match will be in March.