LIGHT and shifty westerly winds, full of holes, caused all manner of problems for the Royal Windermere Yacht Club’s 17ft Class yachts on Saturday, writes John McVey.

Chas Ingham’s Chameleon led for much of the race for the Kemp Cup, but finally lost out in a running battle with Fred Tattersall’s Liberty and was then pushed back into third place as Ian Frith sailing Deva, slipped through on the line.

Chameleon led throughout the first lap but Liberty got through after rounding Claife for the second time only for Chameleon to regain the lead at Adelaide.

Back came Liberty and then Deva made her run late in the race to snatch second.

The previous week, the fleet raced for the Kenneth Crossley and Wind’ard Cups in the south lake when the breeze was light and the shifts not easy to read.

Gay Crossley’s Whisper and James Nield’s Amira took turns at the front, but Whisper went away on the last leg.

James Baron sailed Mistral into third ahead of Liberty with David McCann’s Freedom II fourth.

Just three boats turned out in the third race of the non-counting Hope Cup series on Sunday. The winner was Keith and Carol Barrow’s Phantom.

Class results: Windermere 17ft Class: Kenneth Crossley and Wind’ard Cups: 1 Miss HMG Crossley’s Whisper; 2 J Nield’s Amira; 3 J & T Baron’s Mistral; 4 FH Tattersall’s Liberty; 5 J & J Hoyle’s Nepenthe; 6 P Catherall & J Caffrey’s Osprey. Classic Fleet: 1 Whisper; 2 Amira; 3 Nepenthe.

Kemp & Whitehead Cups: 1 Liberty; 2 J Curtis’ Deva; 3 CS Ingham’s Chameleon; 4 D McCann’s Freedom II; 5 JM Hopkinson’s Merrymaid; 6 K & C Barrow’s Phantom. Classic Fleet: 1 Deva; 2 Whisper; 3 Amira.

GP14s: Thursday: 1 R Rose’s Bumbling Bee; 2 JG Atkinson’s Lucid Interval; 3 M Hynes’ Demi-Sec. Sunday: 1 B & M Theobald’s 13780; 2 J & C Gore’s Mischief.

Lasers: Thursday: 1 J Barker’s Badger; 2 D Stutchfield’s Minnehaha; 3 P Legge’s Not Yet Known. Sunday: 1 Badger; 2 T Watson’s Kebbie; 3 C Watson’s Isolased Too.

Mirrors: Saturday: 1 Sheona Sweeney & Hannah Parkinson; 2 James Stokes; 3 William Parkinson & Brendan Sweeney n YOUNG Mirror sailors from the RWYC travelled to Ullswater for the RYA West Zone Championship.

Competion was tight, but Anna MacKenzie and Nicola Brook performed consistently to win four of the six races and take the title.

Patrick Houlihan and Michael Hanlon were second overall and only James Budd and Kate Robinson (Leight and Lowton SC) prevented a RWYC clean sweep, as Emma Houlihan and Emily Mac-Kenzie were fourth.

n A FORECAST that light easterly breeze on Saturday morning would change to a westerly sent the RWYC Flying Fifteen fleet into north lake for a zig-zag course.

The breeze duly came round to the south-west, but with considerable variation in speed and direction. At the windward mark, David Brockbank and Rob Sellers in Five were first round, just ahead of Terry Tinn and Colin Brunt in Flying Ferret, Andrew Kirk and Helen Ginsberg in Zephyr and Frank Kelly and Doug Douglas in Fiscal Folly.

On the next beat, under Claife, the wind died away, and Michael Bentley and John Barker in Folly and Bev Armer and John Wright in Ffidget joined the leading group. Over the final laps, Five regained the lead to win by a good margin from Folly and Fiscal Folly.

On Sunday, the north lake was again chosen. Michael Bentley and David Hawkes in Folly geot a good lift to lead David Brockbank and Sophie Crewdson in Five and Frank Kelly and Brian Garvey in Fiscal Folly, at the first mark.

On the second lap, Andrew Kirk and Litton Ledger in Zephyr, and Nigel Tullett and Sam Rayner in Kiffs went into the lead as the wind came round to the north and held on to take first and second repectively with Fiscal Folly third.

The Rollercoaster Trophy, for counting races in May was won by Kiffs. The Klipspringer Trophy for counting races in June was won by Zephyr.

Results: Saturday: 1 D. Brockbank & R. Sellers, Five; 2 M. Bentley & J. Barker, Folly; 3 F. Kelly & D. Douglas, Fiscal Folly. Sunday: 1 A. Kirk & L. Ledger, Zephyr; 2 N. Tullett & S. Rayner, Kiffs; 3 F. Kelly & B. Garvey, Fiscal Folly.

n WITH light winds from the south east, for Killington Windsurfers John Pawson immediately took the lead in the first race. Mike Hardy and Phil Atherton were closely matched and in race two Atherton won by a length. In race three, Hardy tried to squeeze out Atherton at the finish, but was pushed the wrong side of the buoy giving Atherton the race.

Overall result: 1 J. Pawson; 2 M. Hutton; 3 P. Atherton.