Bermuda’s sailors made a good start to their 1/16 finals group in the Star Sailors League Gold Cup yesterday.

Racing in Fleet 2, skipper Rockal Evans and his 11-strong crew finished second in their opening contest in Gran Canaria, Spain, behind one of the regatta’s surprise packages Tahiti, who continued their unbeaten run.

Bermuda, racing as The Privateers, made a fine start to the race, leading by 27 seconds around the first mark and they maintained that advantage on the second leg passing through Gate 2 with the same time to spare.

It was on the way to the third mark that the Pacific Islanders wrestled away Bermuda’s lead, rounding eight seconds clear and they pulled away on the final leg of the 45-minute race, winning by 1min 7sec.

Bermuda then came home more than a minute clear of third-placed Hungary with Finland bringing up the rear a further minute behind.

Evans was pleased with the performance but will make a few tweaks in the hope of making some marginal gains in race two.

“We had a great start today after coming in with a lot of momentum,” Evans said.

“We were in the second race of the day and the wind was maybe eight knots and our game plan was to keep it simple, get a good start, get off the line and play the shifts.

“That’s exactly what we did for the first lap but on the second lap Tahiti hunted us down and got ahead of us at the last top mark and we really couldn’t keep up with them the last downwind.

“We had a detailed debrief after and we are going to do some changes for tomorrow to see if we can keep up the speed with them downwind but, all in all, everyone is happy and spirits are still high. Everyone’s eager to get back on the start line tomorrow and conditions are expected to be the same with light winds, so it will be good to see if our notes from today’s race makes us go better tomorrow.”

Tahiti picked up four points for the win in race one, with Bermuda claiming three, Hungary awarded two points and Finland sitting on one with three races left. Race two takes place on Friday and the top two in the group will qualify for the 1/8 finals, which take place next week.