Junior Viera’s debut in this year’s Round the Island Seagull Race turned out to be a truly rewarding and memorable experience.

The 26-year-old savoured victory at the first attempt competing as crew on board skipper Nicholas Amaral’s dinghy, One More For the Road.

Amaral and Viera pipped Sport Cruisin class rivals and professional powerboat racers Luis Martins and Steven Bridges (Team Bermuda) for line honours by a mere second in an exciting dash to the finish.

“It feels amazing and this is actually my first time going around the island,” Viera told The Royal Gazette. “It was my first time period and an amazing experience.

“I wasn’t even supposed to do it; I was just filling in for my Godpa [Luis Viera]. He asked could I do this for him, and I agreed and just hopped on the boat.”

Amaral and Viera held a considerable lead at the front of the 55-boat fleet heading down the South Shore but suffered a massive setback, which allowed Martins and Bridges to close the gap on them.

“Halfway down South Shore our motor cut out because of the seaweed and we were fighting to get it started again,” Viera said.

“Finally it kicked over but when we looked to our right Luis and Steven were in line with us.”

Amaral and Viera managed to distance themselves from their rivals again.

However, their decision to stay farther offshore on the stretch leading to Fort St Catherine allowed Martins and Bridges to reel them in again and leave the race wide open.

The two teams then battled side-by-side the rest of the way before Amaral and Viera finally pulled away for good and held on to take the win a new class record time of 2hr 55min.

“We were hooking the whole way and the adrenalin makes me want to do powerboat racing,” Viera said.

“It was a great experience especially going up against Luis Martins and Steven Bridges knowing that have that experience on the water and are racing away. We even had a talk afterwards and it was just fun.”

Things might have panned out differently for Martins and Bridges had it not been for a costly error.

“We would’ve actually had the finish line if we didn’t make one mistake at the turn in the Great Sound,” Martins said.

“It is what it is and we had a nice little race down the South Shore, kept those guys in sight and made it a good exciting race for ourselves at 12½ knots the whole way round.”

Jacob Hocking and Jason Whitecross finished third in 3hr 18min to round off the top three overall.

“It was our first year in this class, so we will generously call this a ‘data-gathering exercis’” rather than a campaign for silverware,” Hocking said.

“I have a seriously talented teammate in boat-collecting enthusiast Jason Whitecross, and with a year of experience under our belts, I fully expect we will be climbing the standings next season — or at least making everyone else work a little harder.”

Also setting a record in this year’s race was the pair of Rory O’Connell and Stuart Robertson, who crossed the line in 8hr 41min in their boat, Small Engine, to eclipse the previous mark by 19 minutes.

Of the 55 boats that started, 36 finished with 14 retiring.