Adam Barboza and his crew certainly have an to the J-105 class.

Under skipper and owner Mark Cloutier, they won that division at last year's Bermuda International Race Week and yesterday, in Cloutier's absence, Barboza guided the same boat and crew to the title yet again.

"He is away on business so we held up his honour," declared an ecstatic Barboza after a nail-biting, three-point victory over Thomas Coates of the USA.

In the process, he also upheld the host nation's honour and gave fellow local sailors much to cheer about as the first of eight titles were decided in the waters off Hamilton. Racing in the other seven classes ends today.

Barboza finished with the low score of 12 points from eight races with one drop while Coates was the runner-up with 15 points. Another Bermudian, Glenn Astwood, was third on 22.

"It was a pretty good finish. These guys and girls sailing with me helped a lot. We knew the other boat had to win the race and we had to be worse than third.

"We weren't looking very good on the first upwind leg but we pulled it back with some good teamwork and all credit to my crew," said the triumphant skipper of the final race amid post-racing drinks and merriment aboard .

Describing the weather as "super all week", Barboza noted the entire regatta was on a knife edge with no room for error.

"The fleet was very tight the whole week so any mistake and you paid for it dearly."

He and his crew ? his wife Debbie, Garry and Leatrice Roman, Somers Kempe and Jenny Gower ? thanked Cloutier for the vast experience they obtained sailing with him in Florida.

"We have come on leaps and bounds since those trips and all thanks to him for the opportunity," said Barboza.

The 36-year-old helmsman has tasted success before at Race Week, winning in Lasers and finishing second a few times in Etchells ? not to forget being part of Cloutier's J-105 crew last year.

"Bermudians always do well in all the classes here and it says something for the ability of the Island's sailors," he noted.

Coates congratulated his rival saying "crew deserved to win" given their fabulous sailing.

"The crew and driver were the best when they needed to be. Coming into this morning, we could have beaten them twice and won the regatta. They also knew that obviously and we went head-to-head today and they were the better boat.

"This race and the regatta came down to the last 50 feet of the second race. That's how close it was all week. We ended up three points behind and there were at least three boats available for us (to overtake) in the last 50 feet of the second race. It was thrilling," said the 50-year-old Californian.

Astwood was also content with his performance considering the stiff competition and the fact that he was assembling a new team.

"We didn't expect too much. We've got a totally new crew and we haven't been doing any windward-leeward racing so we were pretty pleased to come out with third.

"Those guys have been down in the south of the USA sailing all winter. Adam has been down there too.

"We came in with a lack of practice but we decided we were going to do it anyway and went out there and made the best of it. My crew did a good job," he said.