Slick spinnaker work carried Chris and Susan Shea's Oyster 72, Magrathea, to the fore of the fleet in the third race of the Oyster BVI Caribbean regatta on Friday. Making most of classic 20knot tradewind conditions, the Magrathea crew was first to hoist and after surviving a tricky luff from Richard Smith's Oyster 655, Sotto Vento, soon powered into the lead on what became a challenging 22 mile chase through the islands from Necker down to Peter Island.

Stuart Smith and Barry Cooper's Oyster 82, Oceana, was closest to challenge until over standing through the narrow channel dividing the Dog Islands and conceded 2nd place to Tuesday's Class I winner, Mariusz Koper's Oyster 72 Katharsis II. The Katharsis crew also stuttered in the gybing sequences  through the Dog Islands and lost their chance to break through Magrathea's cover too. By the time the Katharsis crew had their spinnaker pulling hard again, Magrathea was half way across the Sir Francis Drake Channel to Ginger Island. Katharsis clawed back half the distance on the reach behind Cooper and Salt islands, but Magrathea made no mistakes dropping their cruising chute and held their reduced lead on the final 2-sail reach to the finish off the beautiful resort on Peter Island. Oceana saved her time on Richard Mlorgan's Oyster 655, Blue Destiny, to take 3rd place on handicap.

Class II honours went to the smallest yacht in the fleet, David and Tamsin Kidwell's venerable Oyster 435, Twice Eleven which pipped  John McTigue's Oyster 56, Blue Dreams by just 4 seconds on corrected time. Stephen and Jean Roth's Oyster 53 Golden Peal finished 3rd.
 
The informal dinghy championship held during Thursday's layday at Bitter End YC, proved anything but, with Olympic aspirants and youth champions swelling the ranks of gladiators representing each of the Oyster crews. Everyone came back a winner, with BVI Race Officer Alan Brook claiming the most spectacular capsize and David Tydeman for saling furthest without a rudder before he also took a tumble.

Andy Lovell carried the day in the Laser class for the Oceana crew by counting three firsts and a 2nd over Zig Zag's Phil Henderson. Alan Harris presenting Katharsis II  finished 3rd.

In the Hobie Cat class, Tom Davis from Straviag stamped his authority on the fleet with four first places, leaving Vincent Bloem from Windflower and Paulina Kierebinscy from SunsuSea to fight over 2nd and 3rd places