Rory Bowman and his crew on Yeah Baby have maintained their lead in the International Dragon’s Edinburgh Cup after two more races were completed on Thursday in robust conditions

Bowman, who is crewed by Duncan Grindley and Chris Pank, chalked up third and first places in the two races sailed, to slightly stretch their lead over Martin Payne and his crew on Elusive.

The Yeah Baby crew are the defending champions, but are still cautious about their chances of putting their name on the Edinburgh Cup again, “so far, so good” was Bowman’s comment.

Though there was plenty of wind, he said that being off the land it was streaky, which made it quite difficult, and staying in the maximum pressure was as important as finding the shifts.

The crew of Elusive, Martin Payne, Ivan Bradbury and Adrian Stanislaus won the first race of the day, but slipped to fourth in the second race, so allowing the Yeah Baby team to put another point between them.

Race officer Robert Llewelyn of the Royal Torbay Yacht Club, sent the fleet out early, in order to fit two races into the day, to try and get the regatta back on schedule, with a further two races planned for Friday, to complete the championship.

A gutsy 20-25kt westerly breeze made for tough conditions on Torbay, though fortunately the seas were flat, which really made the difference between being able to sail, and having to spend another day ashore.

Other boats that managed top three places were the Irish entry Das Boot skippered by John Lavery, who finished second in the first race, Eric Williams sailing Ecstatic to second place in the second race ahead of Julia Bailey steering Aimee.

Julia Bailey, crewed by her husband Graham and David Heritage led around the first mark in both races, but couldn’t hold onto the advantage.