class title from Peter Bromby in the National Keelboat Championships.

Penny Simmons clinched the IOD class in a fleet of 10, not even having to sail the last race to win in the two-day event, while Shelagh Tasker overcome five other skippers in the J-24s.

Barboza ended with two firsts, three seconds and a fourth to push Bromby down into third with Timmy Patton. Andreas Lewin finished second.

Afterwards, Barboza said: "The racing was close and the standards were high.

We had good starts but never led on the first cross because the breeze was so shifty.

"It was good to see the lead changing so much in the races.'' Barboza added that in the races in which he finished runner-up there was never more than a few feet in it.

Bromby was clearly having problems with his boat speed on the first day -- a fact acknowledged by Barboza.

But he could not be written off and, despite being over the line before the gun in the second race of day two, he went on to clinch second place in it.

And it wasn't completely plain sailing for Simmons, who had to fight back from the middle of the fleet in a number of his races.

The weather on Saturday was light early on, but became progressively breezier with the final being a real roller coaster with surfing boats and torn spinnakers. Sunday's wind moderated considerably but grew very shifty.

Early indications of the action to come appeared at the first weather mark of the first race where three boats, those commanded by Craig Davis, Bob Duffy and Simmons rounded within a boat length of each other.

After a slow start, Harry Powell caught up with the fleet along with JP Snelling who had phenomenal downwind speed for the whole regatta.

Racing in the J-24s was exceptionally close on the first day, with Rikki Hornett and Emma Atherton getting wins in the first and second races respectively. Tasker took advantage of three boats being over the start line early in the third race to obtain a lead which she never looked like relinquishing, leaving just three points separating the top three boats by the second day.

It went down to the last race with the lead changing hands between Atherton and Tasker several times, but the latter capitalised on a shift at the last mark to get in front, where she stayed until the finish.