Promising sailors Christian Ebbin and Magnus Ringsted were among the winners of the 2020 Heineken Round the Islands Race organised by the Bermuda Sailing Association.

The pair topped the three-boat dinghy fleet to cap an impressive racing debut in the 29er at the event last week.

“We were the only 29er sailing in our class and won off corrected time against two other Sunfish,” helmsman Ebbin, 15, said. “Everything went well and it was a little bit windier than we expected. It was just a great day out on the water having fun and enjoying ourselves.”

Ebbin and Ringsted navigated the racecourse around the islands of Hamilton Harbour and the Great Sound in a corrected time of 1:10:54.

“Christian and I had a great race,” crew Ringsted, 14, added: “It was fun to be out racing in the 29er after several weeks of training.”

Timothy Fox crossed in second in 1:18:31 followed by Julian Fletcher in 1:24:28.

Ebbin and Ringsted prepared for the race by training with Tom Herbert-Evans, the former Royal Bermuda Yacht Club sailing director, who now serves as youth programme manager on the international SailGP circuit.

“It’s been great training with Tom,” Ringsted said. “We’ve spent quite a bit of time out on our own, so it’s good to have some proper coaching from Tom and Nathan Bailey [sailing director] and Josh Greenslade [senior instructor/coach] at RBYC.”

He added: “The summer sailing plans didn’t exactly go as planned. We had hoped to travel and compete but the pandemic got in the way. This hasn’t stopped our progression, though, and we’ve worked hard learning how to handle the 29er, which is quite a change from our old Optimist.”

Meanwhile, Martin Siese and Patrick Cooper and Hubert Watlington were the remaining winners last week.

Siese and Cooper led the Keelboats across the line with a corrected time of 1:25:17 and also secured overall honours for their win in the International One Design, Solna.

Watlington secured top honours in the Classic division competing in his 150-year-old boat, Shamrock, with a corrected time of 49:57.

“It was great to have the event,” Tom Clarke, the race officer, said. “We had 19 participants on the water and it turned out to be a really nice day. It was better than forecast so we had nice breeze to the full course for the three different classes.

“It was a great day and we’re most appreciative to Heineken and Burrows Lightbourne for their ongoing support in that event and sailing in general.”

Alan Frith (Nasty Medicine) and Paul Wright (Tiburon) finished second and third among Keelboats and Ted and Elspeth Weisberg (Pearl) second among the two entries in the Classic division.