Bruggadung leads in Tobago racing

The Racing Class featured two races on the day and, for most of the afternoon the racing committee, headed by Antiguan Chris Martin, had to deal with two series of protests in the Racing class — one involving Bruggadung, Bacchanal Woman and Brut Force and the other dispute featuring Paulie Wants a Cracker and Slippery When Wet.

There was even more drama late yesterday when Bruggadung II, skippered by Andrew Burke and Enzyme, a Henderson 35 boat captained by Paul Solomon finished with six points after the two races.

But, according to the tournament rules, Bruggadung II took first place by virtue of a lower score in the second race (two to Enzyme’s four). And the 13 remaining boats in the Racing Class had to witness another tense affair as reigning champ Storm, a Riechel Pugh 44 yacht by American owner-captain Les Crouch, and High Tension Lucozade, a Mumm 36 led by Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association (TTSA) president Michael Rostant, were locked on third place with eight points.

But High Tension claimed third spot due to the fact that they tallied one point in the second race, compared to Storm’s seven. In the other four categories — Cruiser-Racer, Cruising, Charter and Comfort — the winning boat on the day received one point, while the second-placed finisher earned two points, the third-placed three points, the fourth-placed four points, in that order.

There were no such suspense in the other four categories on the day.

In the Cruiser-Racer division, Wayward, under owner-captain Jerome McQuilken, leads with Barbadian Rapajam, guided by Ralph Johnson, in second spot.

In third spot is 2004 champ Petit Careme (captain Rawle Barrow), followed by C-Mos (Jose Mosca), Aquarela of the USA (Tim Barr), Joia (Brian Wallace) and 1st Home of Britain (Ian Graham.

The American boat Hotel California Too, led by Steve Schmidt, tops the Cruising group, ahead of Nirvana (Lloyd De Roche), Les Remous (Mike Lewis), Business Machine (Marsha Farfan), Blurred Vision (Chris Mayhew), Jump Up from Barbados (Jerome Reid) and Sea Wyf (Kelvin Kenny).

Last year’s winner of the Charter division Annie T, now guided by British Colin Rudge, is the early pace-setter with Galasminda (R Lee), Saga Boy (David Downie), Team 1955 (David Andrews), Inspiration (Robert Thomson), Pooglette II (James Pascal), Monowai (David Byrne), Vindaloo (P Newbold), Carino (Roger Hexton), Lauraus (JM Indersteeg), Ambition Sailing I (David Irwin) and Hienga (RM Indersteeg) following. The Charter class is dominated by yachts from the United Kingdom with Pooglette II and Monowai the only local boats registered.

Reigning Comfort Cruising champ Ala Mor, skippered by Britain’s Les Thomson, is the overnight leader with Alexa of the United Kingdom (Paul Dale), Eurasia of Scotland (John Clouston), Pegasus of Britain (David Lihou) and De Rob of the Netherlands (Andre Mulder) trailing. The American boat Anna Maria, as well as the local vessel Tangalanga, did not start yesterday’s race and were subsequently scratched from the event.

Today’s race, which will be sponsored by Hilton Tobago, will get going from 10.25 am.