With the Stanford Antigua Sailing Week fleets having returned from Fort James yesterday, racing on day three of the regatta was based off Falmouth on the south side of island. With two relatively short windward/leeward races, crews were able exploit their close-quarters, round-the-buoys racing skills.

Division A fleet for the faster racing boats enjoyed a 14-mile sprint just to the east of Falmouth Harbour at the mouth of Willoughby Bay while Division B completed their South Coast Race further west.

Although the wind was generally lighter than yesterday there was still up to 17kts which once again made for some fine racing. Mike Slade’s 100ft canting keel Farr-designed supermaxi ICAP Leopard headed off over the horizon and beat George David’s 90ft maxi, Rambler, by over six minutes on the water in the first race of the day in Racing Class 1. Panthera, Benny Kelly’s TP52 skippered by British sailor Andy Beadsworth finished third.

In Racing Class II Stuart Robinson and his all-star British crew including Neal and Lisa McDonald aboard the Swan 70 – Stay Calm – clocked up two wins today confirming their place atop the scoreboard.

It was good to see Frank Savages Swan 56 Lolita back on the water again today after her collision with Sojana yesterday. Savages team worked all night to ensure she was fit for racing again today. She certainly doesn’t seem to have suffered too much in the way of speed either, notching up a second and third respectively.

Sojana also racing today had a third and a fourth but apparently an appeal put forward to the race committee over yesterday’s disqualification was turned down late this afternoon. Meanwhile the team aboard Sojana continued to celebrate Peter Harrison’s – Sojana’s owner – birthday.

The zippy little Seacart 30 multihull sailed by the Swedish team headed by Calle Hennix had a great day beating the ORMA 60 trimaran Region Guadeloupe. In the Dragon fleet Sasha Eskov put in a good performance beating Poul-Richard Hoj-Jensen in Compass point.

In Performance Cruiser III local boat Hugo B finished first in class but the British charter yacht Northern Child owned and skippered by Julian Sincock had a great race. Sincock commenting on today’s race said: “It’s been a fabulous day today – cracking winds and beautiful sailing. We have a good competitive fleet, with 17, eight of which are capable of winning such as Legacy and Hugo – they are cleaning up. We had a second and a fifth today so I imagine we’d be around third overall.”

There is no racing at Stanford Antigua Sailing week tomorrow but there’ll be the now traditional lay day activities with sundowners at Shirley Heights.

For results go to www. www.sailingweek.com