Roger Beach breathed a sigh of relief after crossing the Marion Bermuda Race finish line to finally put an end to two “tough days” of sailing.

The Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club commodore and co-helmsman Jeff Bennett limped across the finish line off St David’s Lighthouse in a gentle breeze at 10.31pm on Wednesday night.

After a few hours of recovery, Beach told The Royal Gazette how conditions had taken a huge toll.

“We thought Mother Nature had tossed everything at us at that stage of the race and was thinking to cross the line any moment and a rain squall came through, sucked all the breeze out and we actually drifted over the finish line,” Beach said.

“I wasn’t sure whether we were drifting forwards or backwards but luckily it was forwards.”

Beach and Canadian Bennett finished fourth in Class A and nineteenth in line honours among the 21-boat racing fleet.

“While our performance wasn’t what we’d hoped, the experience definitely was,” Beach said.

“The experience surpassed our expectations and we learnt an incredible amount about the boat, sea conditions, weather and navigation. Moreover, we learnt a lot about ourselves and each other in terms of perseverance and pushing onwards no matter what.”

The duo’s progress towards the island was stalled in the latter stages of the 645 nautical-mile race as adverse winds and current took their toll.

“We had a good crossing of the Gulf Stream and made up a lot of ground and from then on the breeze was on the nose and we sailed into a big hole and had a lot of adverse current and there wasn’t much we could do,” Beach said.

“It was quite humbling actually because Jeff and I can normally get a sail boat moving and no matter what we tried, we couldn’t.

“We went right back to basics in terms of how to trim the boat but if we didn’t have enough wind to basically get it heeled over to 12 degrees there wasn’t much we could do other than sit there frustrated and keep trying. It was a tough two days, for sure.”

Beach and Bennett were making their race debut and took turns at the wheel as they competed double handed for the first time.

“We were doing an hour and a half on and an hour and a half off and trying to get some sleep in a boat that sounds like you’ve got a drum over your head and a toddler beating on it was quite tough at times,” Beach said.

“But I’d definitely like to do another Marion Bermuda Race and definitely would do double racing again. It’s been a wonderful experience and both Jeff and I are really appreciative of the support we’ve had from friends and family and members of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club.”

The duo competed on the 33ft yacht, Avalon, the smallest in the fleet, and were also Bermuda’s only boat in the race.

Class A rival Redwood, helmed by Pike Severance, secured class and line honours with an elapsed sailing time of 4 days, 18 hours 33 minutes and 42 seconds after crossing the finish line at 7:13am on Wednesday.