The placing was the best achieved by the Navy boys in the regatta, which is in its 10th edition, but skipper Mohamad Razali Mansor was far from satisfied.

"We were only 50 seconds behind the second placed yacht and it was a bit disappointing. The crew and I are still getting used to the new yacht and we hope to improve in the coming days," said Mohamad, who added that the unfamiliar equipment saw his crew having a tough time hoisting the jib (a triangular staysail) in the third race and this cost them precious time.

The Navy have two entries in the Racing Class with the other being Utarid which is skippered by Ishak Jab. Utarid finished yesterday's Kuah Harbour race in fourth place ahead of Hong Kong entry Jelik II helmed by Frank Pong.

Jelik II was the fastest in all three races but was relegated to last placing due to time handicap rules.

Australian entry Hooligan, with Marcus Blackmore as skipper, emerged tops in all three races with another Hong Kong entry HiFI coming in a close second.

Another Malaysian entry, Vincent Chan's Mata Hari took advantage of good wind conditions to overcome stiff challenges from the other four entries in the IRC1 class races.

Mata Hari won both races yesterday from Rick Pointon's Jing Jing from Hong Kong.

Singapore entry Tantrum finished the first race third followed by Katsu from Australia and Virgo from the Royal Selangor Yacht Club