A MIXED fleet of 42 boats contested the Royal Windermere Yacht Club's annual RNLI Open Race on Sunday.

In bright sunshine and light winds a course was set in the north basin from a start line at Rayrigg, over to FBA for the windward mark, up to Fisherfields and then across to Adelaide The start was in two fleets with dinghies away first, followed by the keelboats.

Racing in both fleets was close with the RS400s Papa Lazaroo and Pink exchanging their leads many times until Papa Lazaroo moved away without making a single mistake.

Hyper, a GP14, lead its class after breaking away from Supersonic and Lucid Interval.

The Mirrors doggedly carried on their race with Sunshine and 62993 tussling all the way with Sunshine crossing the line less than two minutes ahead.

In the keelboats the Flying Fifteens Across the Lake and Toff left Free Booter and Flying Ferret with Across the Lake finishing some four minutes ahead of Toff.

Of the seven Windermere 17s taking part Deva, with her lightweight and rather young looking crew, took line honours followed by Niaid. The battle between Nepenthe and Minerva lasted right to the line with Nepenthe crossing first just 25 seconds in front.

Cruisers also took part, with Blue Movie, a Club 19, sailing a steady race followed by Smooth Torquer, a Beneteau 32s5, and Brabander, a Beneteau First 211, finishing in that order.

It was a hard race for the bigger boats in the light winds.

RNLI pennants were presented to the winners of each class with a special prize for David Grey who entered the only Topper and finished the race near the back after nearly 120 minutes of racing.

The overall winner of the Peter Glaister Trophy was Papa Lazaroo, the RS400 sailed by James Neild and Ian Frith.

Results: Dinghies: 1 Papa Lazaroo, RS400, J. Neild & I. Frith; 2; Hyper, GP14, C. Brunt; 3 Pink Pig, RS400, J. R. Richardson & P. Monahan.

Small Keelboats: 1 Across the Lake, Flying Fifteen, M. Thompson; 2 Deva, Windermere-17 footer, J. Curtis; 3 Toff, Flying Fifteen, J. Wright.

Cruisers: 1 Blue Movie, Club 19, M. Shimmel; 2 Smooth Torquer, Beneteau 32s5, S. Peters; 3 Brabander, Beneteau 211, P. Hibbert.

n On Sunday the RWYC Flying Fifteen fleet raced over a long beat to Beech Hill before running back to Seals to turn and complete two small triangles of Temple, Storrs then Seals.

A light, fluctuating, wind on the first beat gave all the boats problems at times but David Brockbank with his daughter Sarah in Five and Miles and Cathy Thompson in Across The Lake rounded Beech Hill in front of the fleet, followed by John Wright and Roger Brown in Freebooter II and Terry Tinn and Paul Maine in Flying Ferret.

Numerous positions changed places behind the leading two boats over the next two laps, but at the finish Flying Ferret gained third place.

Result: 1 D. & S. Brockbank, Five; 2 M. & C. Thompson, Across the Lake; 3r T. Tinn & P. Maine, Flying Ferret.

n FIFTEEN yachts from the RWYC 17-foot class made a cracking start in the south lake in what started as a south to south-easterly wind.

Whisper helmed by Gay Crossley had a fantastic first beat but Pilgrim, sailed by Phil Evans, lead to the windward mark at Beech Hill and maintained that lead at Seals.

Pilgrim, Falcon, Whisper and Liberty were in close contention up to Greythwaite where Fred Tattersall's Liberty powered through to lead followed by Pilgrim.

On the run down to Seals and the following beat to Greythwaite Chas Ingham's Chameleon caught up, for a final result of Pilgrim, Liberty, Chameleon with Amira, sailed by James Nield, fourth.