The owner of Sea Venture Water Sports said that a slow responding tourist led to a power boat driver having to reduce his speed in the Round the Island race last week.

Michael Araujo said that he had to reduce his speed from from 100 mph to around 75 mph as a result of jet skis crossing his path near Daniel?s Head, but added that he was confident that a collision was not imminent.

Yesterday Tom Steinhoff, owner of the company, confirmed that it was his company involved in the incident. He said that it was an ?unfortunate incident? and explained that the instructor involved was aware of the race and attempted to get his tour out of the way in time. However, one of the members of the tour was ?slow and did not respond in time?.

He said that the instructor was being cautious but said that he ?might have made an error doing what he did?. Mr. Araujo ? who was competing in the race for the first time since he lost his co driver Stuart Smith in a fatal crash four years ago ? was also keen to play down the incident.

?I used a bit of common sense and let them go across. I would have thought that locals knew that the race was on,? he told .

?The picture does look like it was fairly close and there was going to be an incident but I was in control.

?It was not close at all, although it is something people need to be wary of in future.? Mr. Araujo said that despite having to slow down to avoid the group, he did not believe this had affected his team?s final position of fifth in the race overall.