Stevie Dickinson landed a fifth straight Long Distance Comet Race title and 20th overall yesterday before revealing he may take a break as skipper next year.

Sailing with crew Pat Young aboard Kitty Hawk, Dickinson used his experience to hold off a challenge from Gladwin Lambert and Stefan Maybury in Melody in near perfect sailing conditions as 14 boats took to the start line off the West End Sailboat Club.

Two visiting sailors finished in the top five, with Talbot Ingram and wife Lee Ingram, of New Jersey, placing third and Joe Lauver and wife Tina Lauver, of Hansbury, Pennsylvania, fourth.

Quinton Simons and crew Greg Proctor completed the top five.

The race started about 40 minutes early at 10.20am to avoid the J Class racing, which started on the North Shore at 11.30am.

“We decided to leave a little earlier so people could come to both events,” said Lambert, the local comet president.

“We were glad we decided to do that and we may even stay with that 10.30 start.”

Dickinson found the conditions to his liking and used his skill and experience to complete the 20th victory.

“I had a very good start and was leading the race up to Spanish Point when Talbot and Gladwin went through me,” said Dickinson, of the East End Mini Yacht Club sailor.

“They started to head off shore a bit, but my plan was to play the shore a bit anyway because the wind was more southeast than east. I got the lead back at Crawl and all I had to do was just sail the boat.

“The breeze was beautiful and when I got around Catherine’s Point I was just past RAA [Club] when they came around the corner, so I had a decent lead on them. I just had to relax, keep the boat going and get through the channel and into the harbour.”

Dickinson has a good ratio of wins as a skipper, but hinted that next year he may step back and act as a crew.

“Twenty wins out of 39 times as a skipper, I’ll take that,” said Dickinson who was a skipper in the race for the first time at age 14. “Also I’ve won five straights and no other comet sailor has done that. Alton Millett won it four straight and I tied him last year.

“I think I’ll take a break next year and crew with somebody for a little while until I feel like taking the tiller again.

“I decided I’m going to take a break and either watch or crew with somebody. I would like to bring along a youngster who would enjoy sailing the boat.

“I have truly enjoyed myself sailing in the class and being around these guys, so I’m not going to stop doing that. I first went into the race at 14 as a skipper, at 15 it was blowing too hard and my father wouldn’t let me go and my first win was in 1976 when I was 16.”

Dickinson has also sailed as a crew for both Heath Foggo and Martin Finnigan.

Another veteran sailor, Lambert, finished second after holding off a challenge from Ingram, the president of the Comet Class in the United States, and his wife who has been his crew for 48 years. The Ingrams were sailing in Charles Gibson’s boat Silent Rage, the same boat they used for International Race Week last year.

“That was on our bucket list, this was on our bucket list and we did it,” said Ingram, 71, a member of Shrewsbury Sailing and Yacht Club.

“He loaned it to us again and we had a lot of fun out there. My right arm is a little tired after holding the main sheet for about 18 miles, but the conditions were great, not too windy and not too light.

“When we got to the Dockyard we were leading the race against those two [Dickinson and Lambert] when they split tacks and went inshore. With Stevie near the shore he probably had a lot less waves than we did, waves from the wind and the chop of the motorboats.”

Lambert was pleased with his second place after pass the J Class boats along the north shore. “I was happy that the wind touched the south a little bit, because an east wind or a light wind and we might have ended up another six hours,” said Lambert, referring to last year’s long race from St George’s to Dockyard.

“At Spanish Point I was leading Stevie, then he tacked away and went back to the shoreline again. By the time we got closer together he had me by another 100 yards and so that tack definitely paid off.

“I decided to keep an eye on Talbot because he’s one of the top skippers in the US. I decided to protect second rather than worry about Stevie too much.”

Rudy Bailey did not pose a threat in Howard Simmons’s borrowed boat, My New Mary, and finished further back.

“He was a little late on the start, but he did come down and finish,” said Lambert whose last win was in 1990. His only other win was in 1977.

“I’ve had about eight seconds and haven’t been outside sixth place in the last 30 years,” said Lambert, the region president of the comet class. “I love the sport and I’m trying to keep the sport going by encouraging young boys to come into the class.”

Lambert had youngster Maybury with him as a first time crew.

“It was a great experience, a pleasure sailing with ‘Glad’ who taught me how to sail,” Maybury said.

“I just do my best to execute what he’s asking me to do. My big thing was I didn’t want to slow him down, I let him do the thinking and me do as much work as I can.” Lauver and his wife were sailing in Nymph, the boat owned by Colin Clarke who died in 2014,

“Conditions were perfect and we wouldn’t have wanted much more breeze for the two of us,” Lauver said. “We had a great time, it’s a beautiful place to sail.”