THE third and deciding race for the Royal Windermere Yacht Club's 17ft Class Susan Crossley Trophy series last Wednesday was doubly significant.

Two boats were level with a win and second place - Brian Ellis' Falcon and John and Tim Barons' Mistral - while Falcon needed to win to keep alive his hopes of catching Chas Ingham in the Averages.

Ingham won the race to finally close the door on his rival and to complete a miserable afternoon for Ellis; Mistral finished two places ahead of Falcon to clinch the three-race series.

It quickly became apparent that Chameleon would win the race as she built up a commanding lead over the south-lake course which involved two visits to the Beech Hill mark and a short final beat from the Ferry to a mobile finish line just to the north of Storrs Temple.

Falcon looked equally comfortable in second place over the first lap, but on the second things began to go wrong.

The wind fell away before filling in from behind and the fleet began to bunch up behind.

Fred Tattersall's Liberty reached Beech Hill in second place and Falcon, John Curtis' Deva and Mistral turned virtually together and remained so back to the Ferry.

On the last beat, Mistral took her chance and crossed the line marginally ahead as the three 'guns' sounded almost simultaneously.

There was some consolation for Ellis when he won Saturday's race for the Chip Cup.

This was his 11th win of the season and while it was not enough to catch Ingham in the Averages with Falcon being taken off the water this week, it seems certain to give him the Points Championship with three races left in the racing programme.

This proved a tricky race in the south lake when 19 yachts, the biggest fleet of the season, sailed down to the FBA mark and because the speedboats were racing off Broad Leys, made two circuits of the Stewardson and FBA marks before crossing the lake to Graythwaite on their was back to the Ferry and a mobile finish near Storrs Temple.

With the breeze veering between south west and south east, the yachts had to gybe four or five times on the downwind legs.

But after making the best start, Falcon led round every mark to beat Chameleon by some 50 yards with John Curtis' Deva third ahead of David McCann's Freedom.

John and Dorothy Wright in Doroffee, Andrew Kirk and Lytton Ledger in Zephyr and Nigel Tullett and Sam Rayner in 3728 led the fleet of Flying Fifteens to the Beech Hill windward mark in the Meteor Trophy.

During the return zig-zag spinnaker leg boats were spread across the lake searching for a breeze.

A good beat from the Ferry towards Ta finish halfway to Temple saw Tullett and Rayner holding off the opposition to win.

On Sunday eight boats contested in strong, but uneven, north-westerly winds.

The result was much involuntary tacking as the wind veered and backed without warning.

The spinnaker reach to Ghyll Head began to sort the boats out and on the second lap of the course Kirk and Ledger built up a commanding lead to win an exciting race.

For the full results see this week's Gazette.