Bermuda sailing received another ringing endorsement after Rockal Evans secured a podium finish at the International Finn New South Wales State Championship in Sydney, Australia.

The grandson of late Comet class stalwart Howard Lee clinched the bronze medal competing among a formidable 15-boat fleet boasting Olympic and America’s Cup calibre sailors.

Evans saved the best for last as he posted a win and two thirds in the final three races of the 8-race series contested in Sydney Harbour from January 8 to 10.

“Definitely happy with my result,” he told The Royal Gazette. “I had a really good last day, never finished out of the top three.”

Evans did an outstanding job connecting the dots around the racetrack in the light and shifty conditions, which took its toll on the fleet.

“The conditions were light wind and very shifty so it wasn’t really a physical race were the fittest person came out on top,” he added. “It was more of who sailed the smartest and who can connect the dots sailing upwind in the pressure and also downwind in a pressure gybing on the shifts.

“The conditions was very challenging just because Sydney Harbour has lots of tide/currents and the racetrack was pretty much in the channel for two days out of the three of racing with wind shifts up to 40° at times and it was changing with a blink of an eye.

“If it wasn’t for me sailing smart (on the) last day I probably would’ve finished fourth place.”

It is the second time Evans has secured the bronze medal at the event having also done so in 2018.

He moved to Sydney in 2017 to aid in his preparations for an unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Multiple Olympic, America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race campaigner Anthony Nossiter pipped fellow Australian Rob McMillan by two-points to win the International Finn NSW State Championship, with Evans finishing a farther four-points adrift in third respectively.

“Nossiter is a very experienced sailor whose done lots of high calibre racing against the best in the world and still sails the Finn every now and then,” Evans said.

Nossiter went in to the championship fresh off winning the prestigious Sydney to Hobart Race with his fellow crew aboard the Monaco-registered100-foot supermaxi, Black Jack.