served to make Bermudians Stevie Dickinson and Heath Foggo all the more determined to bring home a medal from the recent Central American and Caribbean in Puerto Rico.

And this week they have been proudly showing off silver medals after coming back from the bottom of the seven-boat standings to place second in the Snipe class closing with three straight victories.

"When we got disqualified the guy (who lodged the protest) made it look like he tried to avoid me,'' explained Dickinson of the collision at the start of the race for which he was blamed.

Dickinson is convinced there was some Spanish-speaking bias as the Puerto Rican produced two other skippers as witnesses at the hearing, which lasted about 45 minutes. One was from Puerto Rico and the other from Cuba.

"The Cuban was in second place at the time, so if I got thrown out (Dickinson finished the race in second place) it meant his chances of a medal were better,'' explained Dickinson. "I didn't even see him around during the incident.

"The other Puerto Rican was in third place during the protest and I proved that the Puerto Rican who was a witness was lying. What he said obviously didn't stand up.'' Still, Dickinson and crew Foggo lost the protest -- as did another Bermudian, Peter Bromby, in the J24 class -- on a night when six protests were heard.

However, it proved to be the spark that lit the fuse as the two St. Georgians came charging back with three straight victories to land the silver. Their first win was by a convincing margin.

"After we left the protest and went downstairs I said to Heath, `I guess we've got to get three bullets (wins) if we want a medal','' explained Dickinson. "Heath replied, `let's go'.

"Our concentration level was very high after that, we executed some good tacks, our tactics were good and we just sailed the boat really well.'' The pair won the third race of the regatta by a comfortable margin and never looked back.

"Actually that win was the sweetest because in the media they had `Stevie Dickinson of Bermuda in surprise win over Cuba'. But when you beat someone by a minute and a half, is that a surprise?'' Dickinson stated.

Added Foggo, 27: "So we said let's win the next race and see what they have in the paper tomorrow. We decided if we were going to win we had to keep clear of everybody else at the start.'' The non-start and disqualification clearly made the difference between a silver and a gold for the pair who only began sailing together four months ago and were in their first CAC Games.

"If we didn't get a disqualification and it boiled down to the last race it would have been very, very close,'' Dickinson said. "They only beat us by eight points.'' Dickinson was full of praise for Foggo, who was also his crew when he sailed in the Snipe class at the Norwegian Championships during the summer, placing 11th out of 88 boats after being in second place going into the last race.

"I've got to give a lot of credit to Heath, he sailed really well,'' said the skipper. "He was very consistent for a guy who has only been in the boat four months. He is one of the best (crew) I've had in the Snipe class and it can only get better.'' Dickinson added: "We're setting up to go to the Mid-Winters (Snipe Regatta) in Miami in March.'' The regatta will also move down to Nassau, Bahamas.

SILVER LINING -- The ups and downs of the recent CAC Games had a happy ending for Bermuda's Snipe sailors Stevie Dickinson, left, and Heath Foggo last weekend...in the form of silver medals.