Ryan Resendes’s plans of competing in the Bermuda Power Boat Association’s season opener on Sunday seemed dead in the water after breaking a finger just two days earlier

Resendes also sustained a nasty cut, which needed stitches, on his right hand as he helped a rival prepare his boat but he was determined to take part despite fainting twice on the way to hospital.

“The motor came down and my finger was wedged in between, so I didn’t just break it, I also got eight stitches in it as well,” Resendes told The Royal Gazette.

“It wasn’t a pretty feeling and I passed out twice on the way to the hospital. The first thing I said to myself was ‘I am not going to be racing on Sunday’.

‘I had doubts on Friday but I decided to race as I didn’t want to miss the points. I wanted to get out there and see how far off we were from the competition, which was the main thing.”

Despite his condition, the 30-year-old driver battled through the pain on the way to finishing runner-up in the two 25-minute ‘B’ class heats alongside co-pilot and boat owner Makinday Johansen.

“Once the adrenalin kicked I didn’t feel any pain,” Resendes said. “But my brace came off on the last lap of the first race, so as soon as the race finished I started feeling the pain.

“I went over to St John’s ambulance after the race and they put it back on and wrapped it so it would stay on for the next race. I popped some Tylenol and went out for the next one.

“We weren’t able to corner how I wanted to because I couldn’t correct as fast as I normally can, so we were a bit all over the place in and out of the corners. But I am happy with two seconds because now I know how far off we are from the competition, so we will definitely be ready for the next race.

“It definitely felt good to be back out in the boat and I think this is the first year I’ve actually made the first race of the season.”

Resendes is also relieved to see his team’s fortunes take a turn for the better after hardship throughout the previous campaign.

“Last year we were never able to finish a race because we always had hiccups during it,” he said. ”Things would check out during testing but come race day we always had something go wrong, so it felt good to actually finish the races at the start of the season.“

Defending champions Point Mart got their title defence off to a solid start with Brandon DeSilva and colleague Blake Burgess sweeping both heats.

Honours were shared in A class with Shane Madeiros and Joshua Holder taking the first race and the grandfather and grandson duo of Chris and Jacari Marshall winning the second.

Also producing an impressive sweep was Howard Ascento and Ed Burrows, who won both heats in D class, while Jody and Tony Carreiro raced solo in C class.

Janae Nesbitt, the BPBA commodore, was happy to get the season started with some exciting racing.

“We kicked off the season with a great day of racing with ten boats coming out for the first race,” she said.

“We was joined by Bermuda Model Boat Racing, who brought some action with their gas and electric remote control boats.

“We are looking forward to a great season with our next race scheduled for May 18 at Ferry Reach.”