There was piracy on the Solent yesterday when old Solent favourite Desperado was driven to victory in the New York Yacht Club Challenge by a buccaneer crew from IACC boat High Voltage.

When the strong winds ruled out racing for John Caulcutt and his team on High Voltage, he was surprised to receive a call from Desperado skipper Richard Loftus who generously offered his boat for the day on Wednesday.

Caulcutt took along his hotshot crew, including Chris Law, and promptly won though missed out by 28 seconds on the prestigious Britannia Cup. The offer was repeated yesterday, this time with Loftus and 11 of his crew plus 14 High Voltage crew on board and victory was even sweeter.

"He just said 'take the boat' - what a lovely bloke," said Caulcutt of Loftus who has raced the 24-year-old Swan 65 in the Solent for many years.

"Now we are leading the class and want to return the favour by helping him to win it. We have quite a lot of experience on big heavy boats after sailing Maxima and I think we are sailing her very well.

"Having missed out by 28 seconds on the Britannia Cup yesterday after four hours and 40 minutes on the water, it means a lot to have won the New York Yacht Club Challenge by five minutes.

Skandia Life Leopard finished her week's sailing on a high with a special present on the 175th anniversary of the first Cowes Week race - becoming the first finisher of the sixth day's racing.

She was always a contender to secure that honour as one of the fastest boats in the 1,005 strong fleet but on board Mike Slade's 90ft yacht there was a feeling that one of the smaller keelboats in the white class would win the 175th birthday prize.

"We thought it might be an Etchells," explained navigator Hugh Agnew.

"We could not see them but I heard Dick Johnson on Cowes Week Radio saying that we were on the verge of a victory so I had a quiet word with Mike Slade, our owner and he was thrilled.

"He has put so much effort into this regatta and has brought some glamour to it so we are all very pleased for him. That is it for the week - we are getting the boat ready for the Fastnet starting on Sunday and need some time to prepare."

The boat, which will be helmed by Slade, is aiming to finish inside three days so they can be back in Hamble for a memorial service on Thursday for Russell Pickthall who died of cancer last December.

Local shipping boss Eric Williams has established a commanding lead in the International Dragon class on Frantic. The Hampshire-based owner of Williams Shipping took his third first of the week to go eight points ahead of second placed Hestia, owned by Frank Van Beuningen.

In the 43 strong Etchells class, Graham Bailey's Punkarella also picked up a third victory to make him favourite ahead of PR Hoj-Jensen's Danish Blue and Lymington's Stuart Jardine continued his bumper week in the X-boat fleet with a fourth first in Lone Star.