When local sailor Craig Davis was given the helm of Encore, he might have sarcastically figured `just great'. And who could have blamed him?

After all, the avid International One Design skipper had just inherited a boat shrouded in superstition.

Previously named Blackmagic, the same boat had once competedwith the infamous number 13 on her sail and had been torched by a fallen electrical cable during a freak storm in the late 1980s.

But little did Davis know, Blackmagic or unlucky number 13, still had a few tricks up her sleeve.

Rising from the ashes in a big way, Davis sailed Encore to successive wins during yesterday's opening two races of Bacardi International Race Week in the IOD class.

"She's actually been retired as sail number 13," Davis was quick to point out. "She has been renamed as sail number five and she was always a fast boat when she was first built - despite the unlucky number and all the rest of that stuff.

"She was in storage up in Dockyard and a Belco high tension cable came down on her during a storm and wrapped around her mast and melted the deck and charred most of the inside.

"It's been rebuilt by Robert Duffy who is the owner now and he's done a great job."

Davis said the the fruits of Duffy's hard labour were beginning to pay off.

"It obviously showed today as she sailed beautifully all day long for us," he added. "Everyone has told me that she was fast back then and she certainly seems to be fast right now."

The local sailor also credited his early success to near flawless crew work.

"We did a good job of doing the right things today," he said. "My crew did an excellent job. They did everything that we needed to do and didn't make any colossal mistakes. We had good starts and made good speed and hopefully we can maintain it for the remainder of the week."

In hot pursuit of the Bermudian skipper are Americans Scott Redmon and Jim Hennefer who lie in second and third respectively in the hunt for the IOD `A' series trophy.

Meanwhile, the race for the Etchells' KF Trimingham Trophy is wide open with local sailor Tim Patton currently in a three-way tie for first place with Americans Bill Widnall and Tim Lynch.

Losing by inches to Widnall, the first race probably best summed up Patton's day.

"We had a great start, a great first weather leg but in the second weather leg we were in the middle of the race course just trying to control things and we thought that we had done a pretty good job but three boats went hard left and they had been quite a long way behind us," said Patton.

"And all three of them rounded ahead us at the weather mark. We managed to get two of them back and apparently missed winning the race by four inches."

The Bermudian's luck wouldn't be much better in the second race.

"We got caught in a lot of traffic coming off of the starting line and everywhere that we went someone seemed to tack on us," he said. "So it took us a long, long time to get out in the clear air where we could start sailing the race course. "But the crew did a fantastic job today and it was very satisfying to get the finish that we did in the second race from where we had been earlier."

Bermuda's Christi Luthi and defending Etchells champion Peter Bromby completed the opening day's racing in fourth and fifth position.

For Bromby it was an indifferent start to the defence of his title. The Olympic sailor crossed the start line prematurely in the first race to finish eighth, but immediately rediscovered his form to win the second convincingly.

"We jumped the gun at the start of the first race and never made it back. The lead boats protected the breeze well," conceded Bromby.

"It was a bit disappointing because we really didn't have any pressure on us. It was my fault, I did it to myself."

But like the true champion that he is, Bromby came storming back in the second race.

"We had a little better start - not being over," he said. "But it still wasn't a great start. However, we were able to get out into the lead by the first mark just ahead of Christian (Luthi) and after that we just extended our lead."

In the race for the J-24 Gripper trophy, Bermuda's Trevor Boyce holds a slim one-point lead over Canadian Sean McDermott after a first and a second to McDermott's third and first.

Mark Cloutier and Glen Astwood are tied for first place in an all-local fleet of J-105s. Defending champion John Thompson endured a disappointing day and had to settle for fourth position among the five boats.

"It was a good day, though a bit fluky," said Astwood. "In the first race the wind picked up a little and was a little more consistent in the second. We had a bad start (second race) but still managed to come back and go around the windward mark and get the lead and then hold on for the rest of the race."

Getting off to a flying start among the 505 class on the smaller Bravo course was Canadian Ali Meller who captured both races in his fleet.

"The weather was great for us," said Meller. "I'm sailing with a friend of mine from Germany and we're quite light together so the lighter winds suited us and we had the boat tuned well and made excellent speed."

Bermuda's Martin Vezina was also in fine form, storming out to a seven point lead over nearest rival and defending champion Malcolm Smith in the Laser fleet. Canada's Heins Gerbauer finished the day in third.

Racing resumes in the Great Sound at 11 a.m today.

Full results, see Scoreboard.