It would seem as though there are two things synonymous with Robert Duffy's IOD Encore - speed and bad luck!

During yesterday's final race of International Race Week, the latter prevailed.

Encore suffered a broken mast while sailing in 20 knot winds in the Great Sound and had to be towed to shore by a spectator craft, both sail and mast submerged under the blue of Hamilton Harbour.

Canadian skipper George Hebb was at the helm of the boat formerly named Blackmagic and which previously sailed with the unlucky No.13 on her sail.

"We understand that it (boat) was No.13 before he (Robert Duffy) changed the number," said crewman Doug Ridgewell, frantically trying to salvage any undamaged rigging from the downed 40 foot mast.

"The inside lower shroud broke and the rest is history. It came down very fast. We were in 20 knot winds and we were just about to tack.

"Our port deckman was stepping around the forestay and grabbed onto a thong and the forestay and the mast went at that instant and threw him 30 feet out into the water.

"So we had a man and a mast overboard. It was quite exciting for a moment, fortunately there were lots of crash boats around and the crewman was wearing an inflatable lifejacket and nobody was hurt."

Ridgewell, a seasoned sailing veteran, said yesterday's incident wasn't the first of its kind for him.

"It's not our first experience of being dismasted but it's always a shock," he said.

"It's such a shock that you don't even recognise what's happening.

"When it happens it takes a minute just to recover and realise that 'hey . . . the rigs down'."

Also succumbing to yesterday's winds was American Etchells skipper Ben Hodgson who suffered damage to his mainsail halyard (wire) before the start of the day's racing.