THE penultimate race for the Royal Windermere Yacht Club's Flying Fifteen Autumn Bowl was sailed in the north lake in a south-eastly wind, which changed constantly in strength and direction.

Nigel and Jean Tullett in Kiffs sailed into the lead on the way to the first mark at Swan's Nest, with Bev Armer and Andrew Whitehead in Ffidget and Frank Kelly and Doug Douglass in Fiscal Folly in competition for second place before being overtaken by Doug and Joyce Cartwright in Ffor Joy at Red Nab.

Uneven wind on the way to Adelaide caused problems for most of the fleet, with strong gusts alternating with windshifts that took boats away from the mark instead of towards it.

As Kiffs sailed further away Fiscal Folly and Ffidget resumed the battle for second on the second long spinnaker leg to Swan's Nest, as they took turns to find the fluky breeze.

Kiffs enjoyed a comfortable win, with Fiscal Folly taking second and also a narrow lead in the series just ahead of Ffidget before this Sunday's final race.

n Three boats from the Flying Fifteen fleet competed in the Bassenthwaite end-of-season team racing open meeting the previous weekend.

On Saturday, a light south-westerly wind, with gusts coming off the adjacent fells in all directions, gave challenging conditions.

Sunday's wind came from the same direction, but near- gale force gusts and squally showers causing broaches on the testing spinnaker runs.

World champions Steve Goacher and Phil Evans in 3721 found the conditions to their liking and won all four races, with Nigel Tullett and Sam Rayner in Kiffs, and Bev Armer, with Gavin Tullett and Andrew Whitehead sharing crew duties in Ffidget, making up the RWYC team which took second place overall.