Elusive grabs lion’s share of plaudits
Chuck Millican’s yacht, Elusive, lived up to its name after capturing two of the three titles up for grabs during the inaugural J-105 Bermuda Invitational that concluded in 12 to 15-knot southwesterly breezes in the Great Sound on Saturday.
Elusive won the XL Trophy after claiming overall honours with 21 points as well as the Gosling’s Trophy that was awarded to the winner of the Bermuda Series.
Remarkably, Millican won four of the five races for the Gosling’s Trophy and was second in the other.
James MacDonald’s yacht, Passion, finished second on 24 points and claimed the Tourism Bowl awarded to the winner of the International Series.
Jon Corless’s yacht, Mayhem, was third with 42 points.
Passion and Mayhem finished second and third in the Bermuda Series while Elusive and Back in Black (Ed Faries) rounded off the top three boats in the International Series.
Back in Black and Mayhem had victories in Saturday’s final two races to finish the regatta with a bang.
Elusive had the most wins (five) in the ten-race series, followed by Passion with two and the trio of Mayhem, Sadiiqi (Peter Ramsdale) and Back in Black with one each.
Back in Black captured the “Boat of the Day” award after finishing no lower than third in the final two races.
Mayhem won the “Last Blast” race, which did not count towards the overall series.
Yabsta (Trevor Boyce) was second followed by Passion in third.
Charles Tatem, the race officer, hailed the regatta, which featured sailors from four nations, as a huge success.
“It was a tremendous success, especially the fact we bought international skippers here in what would normally be the off-season more in Bermuda terms for sailboat racing,” he said.
“The weather was perfect and it was really a great showing by Bermuda. There were many remarks at the prizegiving about the hospitality and just the fairness of the sailing and how good it was.”
Tatem is keen to see the regatta evolve into a permanent fixture on the domestic calendar. “We’re working on it now,” he said. “Can’t let a good thing rest.”
