BERMUDA’S Peter Bromby and crew Bill McNiven finishes in seventh place out of 77 of the best Star sailors in the world last week at the Bacardi Cup in Florida — a regatta Bromby has won twice in the past.New Zealand’s Hamish Pepper, the current Star Class World and North American champion, who was sailing with his crew and coach David Giles of Australia, won the regatta on the waters of Biscayne Bay, near Miami. Sweden’s Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom, the reigning Rolex Miami Olympic Class Regatta champions, finished in second place while Poland’s Mateusz Kusznierewicz — the 1996 Olympic gold medalist in the Finn Class — and crew Dominik Zycki finished in third.

Australia’s Iain Murray and crew Andrew Palfrey finished in fourth place with Germany’s Marc Pickel and crew Ingo Borkowski taking fifth place ahead of their countrymen Matthias Miller and crew Manuel Voight.

Bromby said this week: “It was a reasonable result. Historically we have always done well at that event. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t our best either.”

Bromby started off with a fifth place, followed by a 11th, a 10th, another fifth, then was over the line in the fifth race and finished with a 10th place.

Of that fifth race, he said: “Up until that point had been fairly conservative in our approach and in the fifth race we took a chance at the start line and pushed as hard as we could and were over (early). Up until that race our worst finish (throw out result) was an 11th and the reality was that if we had gone back and restarted the liklehood of finishing above 11th would have been quite slim. It was a big gamble to go back and restart do we didn’t.”

Conditions were suited to the Bermudian Olympic sailor — winds between 12-16 knots. “That is what we enjoy,” said Bromby.

Last year Bromby finished in ninth place in the North American Championships and he said he was more pleased with this outing.

“In all fairness it was in direct contrast to the North Americans where we were ninth. In that regatta I was discouraged because we had opportunities but managed to sail backwards. In this regatta we sailed quite well and were a bit unlucky. But we were moving through the fleet throughout the races. From that point of view we have been improving. That was the positive we took from regatta.”

Bromby also managed some training with good friends Iain Murray and crew Andrew Palfrey from Australia who finished in fourth place. “They are our sparring partners. We share a coach boat quite often with them and when we don’t have a coach they often will take photos so we can analyse it ourselves later. They are good guys,” said Bromby.