Bermuda's Peter Bromby and Craig Davis only had two things in mind yesterday - playing it safe and keeping focused on the top prize.

Davis adhered to his original game plan and took the cautious route, finishing seventh in his last race, to lay claim to the coveted Vrengen Gold Cup among the IOD fleet.

Bromby was more adventurous.

Bermuda's 2004 Olympic hopeful threw caution to the wind en route to capturing his third consecutive KF Trimingham title in dramatic fashion. He chalked up another bullet - his fifth of the regatta - in the penultimate race of the Etchells as Bacardi International Race Week drew to a close in windy 20-knot conditions.

American Tim Lynch, with local Female Athlete of the Year Paula Lewin onboard, finished second and Bermuda's Christian Luthi third.

"It feels great, as you know it's always great to win at home. Quite often you are expected to win at home so it's always good to live up to your expectations," said a relaxed Bromby, savouring his latest triumph over a steamy bowl of fish chowder.

"It's not been a bad week of sailing really. Light air earlier in the week, a little bit of average air yesterday and today (yesterday) a little bit of heavy wind. So it worked out that everyone got a pretty good dose of a cross-section of conditions, which is nice to see rather than having the same kind of conditions all week."

Bromby also won yesterday with new crew members Lee White and Dennis Correia.

"They really got a chance to show off in these conditions today, and they did," added Bromby who will fly off to the US in two weeks' time to continue preparations for next year's Olympics.

"I've known all week that I have a very good team and with the breezes that we've had so far this week, they haven't really had a chance in terms of their boat handling but they all chipped in. It's always good to have more than one set of eyes out on the race course."

For Davis, it was his maiden Gold Cup triumph.

"Considering we sail Vrengen the sailboat during the normal season, this is actually something that's very special to us," said Davis, who also made a clean sweep (A and B series title) of honours in the IOD fleet.

"It was very hard work. We thought that we were over the start and so we went back which put us behind to begin with and we had to work on other boats coming up. We came back up to seventh position but we ran out of race course. The boats up front were flying and sailing extremely well and had everything working properly.

"We were trying to sail clean and not take any chances. It was very tight at the start but we managed to not hit anybody and stay clean."

However, victory would not come cheap for Davis as his all-female crew took a battering during yesterday's windy conditions.

"They are a little bit battered right now because it was hard work, especially for the ladies," added Davis. "But they stood up and did great things. We have some clean-up work to do first but we will be celebrating a little later on."

Americans Jim Hennefer and Robert Constable placed second and third respectively.

Canada's Rudy Wolf, meanwhile, wrested the J-24 class Gripper Trophy yesterday while compatriot Sean McDermott finished second and Bermuda's Trevor Boyce third.

Pleased by the events of the past week was Royal Bermuda Yacht Club commodore Les Crane who competed among the Etchells fleet.

"It's been another great week of sailing," he said. "People just love to come down here and relax and enjoy themselves. It's fun sailing more than serious sailing. We've got some great sailors here and again it's been a great week."

However, Crane was saddened to see Encore finish the week on a sour note. Robert Duffy's IOD suffered a broken mast during action yesterday and had to be towed to shore by a spectator craft.

"It was just so sad because the boat had been recently renovated by Robert who did a fabulous job," he added. "The boat couldn't be beaten earlier this week. They broke their mast today but the good news was that it occurred on the final day of sailing and not the first.

"It's very sad for Robert because he's put in a lot of work fixing this boat up. The mast will get fixed in quick order - but it's still disappointing."