Rockal Evans ls leading the fleet at the halfway stage of the Ronstan 2023 International Finn Australian Championships in Queensland, Australia.

The Bermudian sailor has exceeded his expectations as he heads the 39-strong international fleet after limited action in the former Olympic class single-handed dinghy lately due to injury.

“I really did not think I would be leading at the middle of the regatta,” he told The Royal Gazette. “I have only been in the Finn three times in the last months due to my lower back injury so to be in this position is really a surprise.”

Evans holds a five-point advantage over Matt Visser of Australia with Visser’s compatriot Bucky Smith a further two points behind.

Evans posted a 7-1-5-4 record in the four races at the championships on the windward-leeward course and will be keen to pick up where he left off when the members of the fleet resume their bid for glory on Thursday.

“The First day was light to medium winds and second day was medium winds,” Evans said.

“The fleet is stacked with people from Great Britain, Norway and New Zealand. The British sailor Cam Tweedle was on the British sailing team campaigning for Tokyo.”

Two races are scheduled to be held on Thursday and Friday with the race committee able to stage as many as three races on any given day if necessary.

This year marks Evans’ third appearance at the regatta. He impressed on his debut at the event in 2018 in Brisbane, where he finished best of the non-Australians when sixth among the 29 entries in the field with a highest finish of third in the ten-race series on Waterloo Bay.

The 34-year-old then finished thirteenth the following year in Melbourne, where he competed among a formidable 40-strong fleet, boasting Olympic and World champions.

Evans has pedigree in the Finn, a single-handed, cat-rigged sailboat that was used in the Summer Olympics from 1952 to 2020. following in the footsteps of his late grandfather, Howard Lee, who represented Bermuda in that discipline at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Sir Ben Ainslie, who has been a regular in Bermuda’s waters of late captaining Britain’s SailGP team won three of his four Olympic gold medals in the Finn.

Evans moved to Sydney in 2017 before an unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

However, the former Comet class national champion has enjoyed considerable success in Australia, winning the Woollahra Finn Masters Championship, Eden Cup, Sail Sydney Regatta, International Finn Old State Championship along with multiple victories competing in the Woollahra Sailing Club Spring and Summer Series.

Evans has also finished second at the Sail Sydney Regatta and third at the New South Wales International Finn State Championship, International Finn New South Wales State Championship and Sail Brisbane, where he endured a nerve-wracking experience sailing over a five-foot long shark while racing.

As well as the Finn, Evans has also competed Down Under in the International Etchells class alongside compatriot Tim Patton and more recently as a trimmer onboard Matt Donald and Chris Townsend’s 52-foot yacht, Gweilo, in the Australia Day Regatta, TP52 Series and Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Ocean Pointscore Series.