International Race Week was not for the faint-hearted this year.

The Etchells, IOD and J-24 keelboat classes all went to the wire with top placings only being decided in the final races of each division yesterday.

In the Etchells a mere point separated winner Peter Duncan from his American compatriot Tim Lynch as they totalled 12 and 13 points respectively. Bermuda?s Tim Patton was in third on 23 points.

It was a similar story in the J-24s where British veteran Stuart Jardine kept his nerve to snatch a one-point success over Bermudians Jon Corless and Mike Lewis who tied on 21 points. Corless eventually placed second because he recorded more first-place finishes than Lewis.

It was that very regulation which determined who triumphed in the IODs with two Americans ? Bill Widnall and Kevin Farrar ? jointly topping the standings on 15 points while Bermudian Jordy Walker was two points back on 17.

Ultimately, Widnall?s hat-trick of first places in the nine-race series edged out Farrar who had two victories.

?It was a real horse race in the final race today between Kevin Farrar and ourselves for the overall title,? said Widnall.

?At one point Kevin had the series won because he was winning the race and we were in third but he made a very serious mistake.

?He lost count of the number of times around the course and he went for the finish line when there was actually one more rounding to do. So Jordy Walker jumped from second into first and held that lead and, with Kevin finishing second, we won the series on a tie-breaker.?

?That?s how close it was. Kevin and us were tied and we beat him because we had one more first for the series than he did,? added a jubilant Widnall, smiling as much as fortune had done on him.

The winner noted the IOD competition had been a bit more challenging than the other classes because sailors had to exchange boats.

?We change boats after each day so part of the game is getting into an unfamiliar boat and figuring out how to get the most out of the sails even though you are not familiar with that particular boat.

?You have to get up to speed quickly and after that it?s the basics that everyone is trying to do their best at: calling the wind shifts, trying to trim the sails right to go fast, staying out of trouble.?

While happy with his overall showing, Walker noted a couple of ?disappointing days? thwarted his hopes for a better outcome.

?We won four races out of a nine-race series but our overall results were dragged down by a seventh and a sixth place.

?If we had a couple third and fourth places instead of those we would have probably won the series but that?s boat racing and overall we?re very pleased.

?We had good boat speed and the competition was extremely keen, very interesting racing. It shows that our international competition is perhaps a little better than us but we are competitive,? the local sailor said.

Duncan termed his Etchells victory ?fantastic?, saying ?it?s a lot of fun to come and race down in Bermuda? and that they felt ?privileged to be invited?.

Chuckling at the tight tussle which he and Lynch engaged in, the 44-year-old said it was a good thing he had a bit of a lead going into the final day. Every bit of it proved necessary as Lynch ate away at his rival?s advantage, sweeping the last three races.

?I would have preferred to have been a little further ahead. We had a rough day yesterday (Thursday) and had to try and hold Tim off,? said Duncan.

?It was really good team work. The two guys who are sailing with me ? Tom Blackwell and Bill Barton ? we have been sailing together since 1998 and we?re preparing for a big year of sailing so we were excited about coming down here to get some practice.

?Tim and his crew certainly kept the heat on us by winning those last three races.?

The runner-up noted that clearly he should have ?kept the heat on earlier? as an excellent final day was still not enough for him to lift the K.F. Trimingham Trophy.

?He (Duncan) got such a lead early in the regatta that, even with three firsts at the end, it still wasn?t enough to get back at him.

?We were coming on strong. If we had a few more races we would have won. We had a slow start but the crew came together and showed what we can do,? said Lynch.

Meanwhile, Jardine, who is in his seventies, taught his younger J-24 peers a thing or two about tactics as he sneaked through the fleet in the final race to secure third place and thereby the overall victory.

?We were in about fifth for a lot of the time and it was difficult to get past. In the end we just had to split tacks with the two boats that were just in front of us and luckily they got involved with each other and weren?t looking (at us).

?We got off to the right-hand side, were able to come in on starboard at the finish line and, of course, they had to give way when we got there. We just managed to squeeze in. I think it was experience at the end ? 60-something years of sailing,? said the wily Jardine, accompanied by his wife Mary-Ann.

Not to be outdone in home waters Bermuda?s sailors had wrapped up all four dinghy classes on Thursday afternoon.

Chuck Millican and Drew Buttner (1-5-2-2-2-4-1-2-1-1) won the 505 class four points ahead of John Hauser and Sol Marini of the USA. Brett Wright (1-1-2-6-1-1-1-1-1) had a commanding 24-point win in the 18-boat Laser class over American Bob Tan. Steve Dickinson and Ty Trott (1-1-4-2) took the Comets over James Perry and Janet Debraga (6-2-2-3) and, in the Snipes, Malcolm and Julie Smith (1-1-1-1) had a perfect regatta and led Canadians Gordon Fleming and Patty Maloney (2-2-2-3) by five points.