A pair of young skippers rose to the challenge Wednesday as winds gusting over 20 knots churn up the waters of San Francisco Bay on Day One of the America’s Cup World Series.

Team Korea’s Peter Burling, at 21 the youngest skipper in the fleet, and China Team’s Phil Robertson, at 25 the second youngest, both scored their first victories over much more veteran crews in the opening round match race series.

Burling took over the helm of Team Korea two weeks ago, yet showed the calm of a veteran in leading his crew to a nail-biting 2-second victory over Luna Rossa Piranha.

“We're really happy to come away with a win there,” said Burling, who won a silver medal at the London Olympic Regatta. “We had a good start and built a massive lead, and then made it pretty hard for ourselves in the end. But I'm proud of the guys that we managed to get it done in the end.”

Burling’s crew struggled to control their gennaker in the rough conditions, but were aided by a penalty on the Italian team, who almost capsized after sailing out of bounds.

Robertson suffered the cruelest fate on the day. They lost their first race of the day but followed it up with a 6-second victory over Luna Rossa Piranha in the second race. Robertson and crew then sustained damage to the frames in their wingsail while jibing and were forced to miss their third race and a chance to advance to the quarterfinal round.

“We were about five minutes before our start and put in a jibe, and the carbon structure in the wing fell apart on us. It almost snapped in half up the middle,” said Robertson, who has skippered China Team since May. “It’s a bit disappointing and also a fairly major situation. The shore crew will have to work all night so we can get back out there tomorrow.”

While China Team was eliminated from the match racing championship, Team Korea advanced to the quarterfinal round where it will meet Artemis Racing – White.

Other crews to advance include Artemis Racing – Red, Emirates Team New Zealand, Energy Team and J.P. Morgan BAR. The quarterfinal round is scheduled for Thursday and Friday. Outteridge, the new skipper of Artemis Racing – Red and at 26 the third youngest skipper in the fleet, had an up and down day. He lost his first match against Team Korea and then won against Luna Rossa Swordfish before getting the walkover win against China Team. “As you can see it was a bit windier today than we had in training,” said Artemis Racing – Red skipper Nathan Outteridge “The waves were quite rough. We got to a point where we thought if we push it harder we might go over. Basically, we just tried to stay in touch and not make any errors. We didn’t make it easy, but in the end we got through.” The first two quarterfinal matches are scheduled Thursday just after noontime. A break in the racing will ensue before all 11 boats in the fleet return to the water for the first two of seven scheduled fleet races at 5:10 pm PDT.