regatta was ravaged by the weather.

Still, the weekend was a boon for Penny Simmons, who claimed overall honours in his Class Two boat High Energy , followed by Peter Bromby, sailing Pedestrian . Paul Hubbard's Tonka led the IMS fleet, while John Corlees in Anarchy had wins both Saturday and Sunday to dominate Class Three.

Last year, squalls hit shortly after the start and forced Monterrey on to a coral head.

Despite the conditions, there was no such disaster this year, when an enthusiastic fleet of 19 boats appeared for the noon start off Pompano, with most awakened on their way out as they passed through Mangrove Bay.

The race got off to a good start with Monkeyshines forcing Tsunami up above the committee boat. Tsunami , in turn, tried to force Crew Cut up but Crew Cut neglected to go up leaving Tsunami asking for room from Monkeyshines and protesting Crew Cut . Crew Cut responded by protesting Tsunami for too much crew weight.

Reaching at about 40 degrees off the wind, all boats cleared the reefs off Sonesta safely and bore away slightly up the South Shore. Rain and squalls came through repeatedly, the wind moved aft, encouraging High Energy and a few others to try setting a chute, with mixed results.

Passing Black Rock the fleet bore off for the Sea Buoy and a comfortable spinnaker run in 16 knot winds. Turning around Mills Creek led to a one-sided beat back to the buoy, then a close reach through Town Cut presenting the usual blank spot and a lot of wishing and hoping that momentum would be sufficient to carry each boat through.

High Energy led the fleet home, followed by Monkeyshines ahead of Tsunami by a second. On corrected time Tonka was second to high Energy in Class Two.

Sunday's race back to Hamilton started in eight knot, southerly breezes.

Spinnakers were set coming back from the Pancake Buoy off St. David's Island.

Going through Town Cut proved a dicey endeavour as the wind lightened.

Monkeyshines was forced to the south side and became trapped in an eddy that held them in place for more than 20 minutes.

Other boats drifted slowly out and started up the channel. Twenty minutes after the first boats had cleared Fort St. Catherine and had begun beating up the North Shore, the wind clocked to the northwest at about ten knots and, as the lead boats continued on port tack out of the Narrows, the rear of the fleet got a boost.

Then, moments later, disaster struck with the sudden onset of a gale.

Competitors had been sailing with their number one jibs and were immediately overpowered. Temptation and Reckless both saw theirs shred, while Gripper , with women and children aboard, lost an outside shroud.

Moondance, Watercolours and Why Knot decided to return to St. George's.

Further down the course the blow continued through Two Rock, but this did not stop Tsunami bravely setting a chute as it followed High Energy into the finish.

The trimiran Frequent Flyer , which had had great difficulty going upwind along North Shore without a small jib, was running in hot pursuit at the end, achieving upwards of 18 knots to reach the finish line a mere minute behind Tsunami .