Sailor Bill McNiven is savouring the biggest win of his career with victory in the North American Championships on Sunday.

McNiven and his crew Martin Seise, Andrew Butterworth and Melinda Bassey, won the regatta in Bermuda by a single point and for the helmsman it was a huge achievement.

“For me driving, this is probably the biggest regatta I’ve won,” McNiven said.

“The North American Championships is a pretty big deal. For us as a team, we’ve had similar accomplishments and winning Bermuda Race Week is probably a slightly bigger deal as there are more boats competing but it felt really, really good.

"It’s always great to win but it was a bit unexpected and I thought we’d have to be quite lucky, as well as bring our A game to the regatta, but both of those worked out well.“

McNiven and his crew had a near flawless first day but were holding on to a slim margin of victory heading into the last race on day two and the skipper revealed that after crossing the final finish line he thought his boat had lost.

“We used different boats on both days and I struggled a bit to get the second boat going,” McNiven said.

“The first day we were going really well and the weather was a little heavier on the second day so that made it a bit more challenging.

“We actually thought we had lost when we finished third in the last race as we thought the other boat had four firsts on the last day to win but they actually finished second in one of the race.”

Winning a regatta such as this is a huge team effort, with the crew having bonded over a number of years on and off the water.

“Martin Siese did our tactics and he was doing the gyb and the kite for us,” McNiven said.

“He is really the brains of the operation and I am more of the stick holder. Andrew Butterworth did main and whatever else needed doing on the boat and Melinda Bessey does the foredeck for us.

“We’ve been sailing together for six or seven years now, maybe more. We know each other and we get along very well off and on the water. It’s more fun than work to sail with these guys.”

The next big event on McNiven’s sailing horizon is the National Championships in November and there will be a shake-up among the crew with Patrick Cooper returning as skipper.

“We have the National Championships coming up in November and that regatta is a qualifying series for the next world championships in Northeast harbour, Maine, and we’re hoping to qualify for that.

Melinda heads back to Canada and Patrick Cooper will join the team in November. He’s our normal skipper and I’ll be going back to doing gyb and kite.

“A part of our magic is that everyone can do everything and it’s very helpful to have a crew that has skippered before because they can anticipate big moves and that makes a big difference.”