BLUSTERY south-westerly winds, strong at times, provided a lively start to the season for the Royal Windermere 17ft Class yachts on Saturday, writes John McVey.

Nine boats turned out for the J.M. Sladen Trophy race in the north lake while three helms with light-weather yachts decided to sit this one out.

The result was hardly surprising as Chas Ingham's Chameleon took an early lead from the mobile start line off Millerground and raced away to win by half a mile.

Behind him a keenly-contested battle for the places involved Gay Crossley's Whisper, Mike Craddock's Vanity, Keith and Carol Barrow's Phantom, Richard and Linzi Parkinson's Falcon II and John Atkinson in Harry Thomason's Endeavour.

Whisper was always the front-runner of this group though under pressure throughout the race from first Vanity and then Phantom.

Very late in the final leg, Falcon finished fast to deny Vanity third place and, as Phantom unluckily found a hole', Endeavour snatched fifth.

Whisper was the winner of the Classic fleet with Vanity second and Endeavour third.

The race marked the return to racing of the 1958 Boyd-designed Lapwing, bought by Ian Tomlinson to replace Sailfish, which is now on the market. Lapwing, formerly owned by Richard Sutton, was last raced in 1996.

Results:

Windermere Class: Saturday (JM Sladen Trophy) 1 C.S. Ingham's Chameleon; 2 Miss H.M.G. Crossley's Whisper; 3 R. & L. Parkinson's Falcon II; 4 M. Craddock & E. Husband's Vanity; 5 H. Thomason's Endeavour; 6 K. & C. Barrow's Phantom.

GP14s: Thursday: 1 R. Rose's Bumbling Bee; 2 J. & E. Oxborrow's Pelican; 3 M. Hynes' Demi-Sec. Sunday: 1 N. Hutchinson's Supersonic; 2 Pelican; 3 J. & C. Gore's Mischief.

Lasers: Thursday: 1 P.B. Legge's Not Yet Known; 2 E. Slater's What a Mess; 3 D. Stutchfield's Minnehaha.

n STRONG winds marked the start of the Flying Fifteen Summer Points racing season.

On Saturday in a Force 3 south-westerly Chris Ducker and Richard Rigg in The Flying Duckman led the fleet round the windward mark.

Over the first two laps, David Brockbank and Rob Parfitt in Five joined The Flying Duckman in pulling away from Michael Bentley and John Barker in Folly and Andrew Kirk and Litton Ledger in Zephyr.

As the wind rose The Flying Duckman and Five built up an impressive lead.

The Flying Duckman pulled away from Five to win while Zephyr held off the fleet to come third.

Sunday's race was set in the south lake in a southerly Force 4. The fleet split from the start line, with Five taking the lead along the favoured west-shore and rounding the first mark ahead of Folly, with Michael Bentley and Jason Critchley, Kiffs with Nigel Tullett and David Stutchfield, and Zephyr with Andrew Kirk and Carole Drury.

Five built up an increasing lead over the two spinnaker legs and at the finish took a convincing first win in the series, Kiffs held on for second, with Folly third.

Results

Saturday: 1 C. Ducker & R. Rigg, The Flying Duckman; 2 D. Brockbank & R. Parfitt, Five; 3 A. Kirk & L. Ledger, Zephyr.

Sunday: 1 Five; 2 N. Tullett & D. Stutchfield, Kiffs; 3 M. Bentley & J. Critchley, Folly.

n WITH a Force 3 westerly wind and with a narrow start gate Killington Windsurfers had to jockey for a good start position. Sean Lockwood closely followed by John Pawson dominated the first race. Dan Jackson, a late arrival, joined the second race, rounded the windward mark first and went on to win.

The third race saw Mike Hardy pushed downwind of the start buoy by Lockwood causing him to lose several lengths. At the finish, Pawson beat Hardy by one foot.

In the fourth race, Phil Atherton rounded the windward mark first but then fell back as a batten came loose in his sail, Pawson just winning from Hardy

The evening's winner was Sean Lockwood.

May 15, 2003 15:34