Martin Siese and his well-drilled crew punched above their weight in the International One Design Class at this week’s Bermuda International Invitational Regatta in the Great Sound.

The local team thrived in the variable conditions to secure third place among a fleet of 13 boats, finishing ahead of Jonathan Farrar, the reigning IOD world champion, and seven-times IOD world champion Bill Widnall.

Siese’s conservative approach ultimately paid off in the ten-race series spread over four days.

“I haven’t really done any large amount of helming for quite a long time now and I’m somewhat rusty,” he said. “So our game plan was to play conservative, and not really try and get in any tight spots, and just try and keep our noses clean, and it worked out pretty good.

“We didn’t win any races, but out of all ten races we only had one where we weren’t in the top half, so we were pretty steady.”

Siese, who coached Peter Bromby and Lee White at the 2004 Athens Olympics, competed with Patrick Cooper, the national IOD champion, Bill McNiven and Melinda Bessey. Cooper was on main and trim, McNiven jib and spinnaker and Bessey on foredeck.

“I had a really good crew,” Siese said. “If I got into trouble they did a good job of keeping the boat going fast to get us out of trouble. We were sailing with pretty good speed all week, and so those guys did a good job to make sure we stayed in the top half all the time.

“We had a good range of conditions from strong breeze, all the way down to quite light and fluky. All in all it was good fun, and I really enjoyed it.”

Siese and crew finished fourth in the A series and third in the B Series.

Peter Wickwire, of the Nova Scotia fleet, captured overall honours for the third consecutive year.

Martin Rygh, of Norway, won the A Series while Widnall, of the Marblehead fleet, captured the B Series title.

This year’s Bermuda International Invitational Regatta also featured the International Etchells Class which was won by Grant Simmer, the Oracle Team USA general manager.

Local skipper Peter Shrubb took second while Tom Clarke, whose crew included Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Commodore Leatrice Oatley, finished third in the six-boat Etchells fleet that competed.