First up win for Women's Eight

The Australian Women's Eight produced an excellent race to qualify directly for the final on the second day of the Rowing World Cup regatta in Munich.

With only one crew qualifying for the final from each of the two heats, the Australians led from start to finish in the head wind conditions, announcing their attentions for the coming year.

Stroked by Victorian Sarah Heard, Australia increased their lead over the closing stages to win in a time of 6:38.36 and by three quarters of a boat length over the Netherlands.

"We have had a really good preparation here in Germany since we arrived on Sunday and it felt great to test the boat in race conditions today," Heard said.

"We knew that getting a fast start was important and we worked well as a group to hold off the other crews.

"We can now focus on the final instead of worrying about the repechages and it promises to be a great race on Sunday."

Australia's main challenge in the final will come from the Chinese crew that won the second heat, as well as the reigning Olympic Champions, Romania.

The Australian Men's Eight finished in second place behind Great Britain in their heat and will now be required to race in the repechages on Saturday.

They were hampered by the late illness withdrawal of James Chapman (NSW), who was replaced by Karsten Forsterling (VIC).

The Men's Quad Scull crew of Dan Noonan (NSW), James McRae (SA), Peter Hardcastle (NSW) and Brendan Long (TAS) won their repechage in convincing fashion to secure a place in the semi-finals on Saturday.

In an assured performance they led for the majority of the race to win in a time of 6:24.55 ahead of the Czech Republic and Romania.

The Women's Quad Scull finished third behind Germany and China in a time of 7:08.54.

Kerry Hore (TAS), Zoe Uphill (NSW), Amy Ives (NSW) and Amber Bradley (WA) combined well in their first international race and will now need to finish in the top four of their repechage on Saturday to progress to the final on Sunday.