In the bag for Strait Dealer

John Ripard JR and the crew of David Franks's Strait Dealer secured a very important win in the fourth and final race, held recently, to be crowned BMW Sailing Cup regatta champions for 2006.

Sonke Stein, on board Kerisma, finished the regatta in second place closely followed by Lee Satariano on board Artie.

In Class B, Moondance made a welcome return to the sailing field with a well-deserved first place followed by Martin Borg Nicholas on board J-Lance. Joe Gerada's J-92 Jailbird was third.

Race One consisted of a long distance race south, towards the Munxar Cardinal Buoy.

Strong currents and a lack of wind made this race somewhat a lottery and those who stayed close to the shore were the eventual winners.

On Saturday, two windward/leeward races were organised and saw good crew work rewarded with both Strait Dealer and Kerisma, placing first in each race.

In Class Two, Jailbird convincingly won both races followed by Moondance in Race Two and again by Moondance with exactly the same corrected time as Jailbird.

The three leading boats, Strait Dealer, Kerisma and Artie had to outperform their opponents going into the final race on Sunday.

The strong wind conditions were perfect for the long coastal race in store. The race consisted of a series of long beats and runs between the fish farms situated off St Paul's Bay and the Fairway Buoy outside Grand Harbour.

Again it was Strait Dealer, followed by Kerisma and Primadonna, who claimed the top spots in Class A. Jailbird, Moondance and J-Lance dominated class B.

The BMW Sailing Cup came to a close with the prize-giving ceremony at Couvre Porte.

"This was the first time that BMW, together with Muscat's Motors, sponsored a regatta in Malta, and we were happy with the quality of the entries," said Lennard Pal, CEO of BMW Malta.

The winners were presented with a trip to Valenzia to match-race against other nations which organised similar BMW Sailing Cups around Europe. The trip will coincide with the beginning of the Luis Vuitton Cup. The winners will visit the BMW Oracle America's Cup team and BMW F1 simulators.

Commodore Georges Bonello DuPuis thanked the whole team of organisers, sponsors and participants and looked forward to next year's event.