Racing was all set to go ahead on time at the Laser World Championship this morning; breezes were looking to be a stable south-east to south-west at 15-20 knots on a south-east swell of up to 2 metres on seas of 2 to 4 metres.

Although heavy rain periods were expected (and arrived early), isolated thunderstorms were also predicted and one arrived just as the boats started leaving the ramp, jury members came out blowing whistles, calling the boats back to their Terrigal base.

Advice from Sydney was that a storm had hit the northern suburbs of Terry Hills and Avoca and was on its way to Terrigal along with a 70 degree shift in winds, prompting organisers to bring the boats back to shore, more because of the shift than the storm, which is not so severe.

At 12.30pm, the boats headed out to the course, officials confident racing will likely get underway after 1.30pm, once winds have stabilized.

"You get used to this, it's part of our sport," said Canadian Olympic campaigner Michael Leigh in relation to the cold, rain and storms.

Leigh, one of the top world ranked Laser sailors, did not have a good opening day yesterday. "I guess I got a bit nervous in the first race. I hit the weather mark and had to do a 720 and didn't recover.

"In the second race, the wind faded on the left side of the course - where I was," he said.