TORRENTIAL rain and strong southerly winds marked the start of the Royal Windermere Yacht Club's Flying Fifteen Overdrafft Series on Saturday.

David and Catherine Brockbank in Five and Nigel and Graham Tullett in Kiffs fought a close tacking battle over much of the south lake course as heavy downpours reduced visibility in the difficult conditions.

Anthony Buckley and John Wright in Simply Spiffing and Frank Kelly and Doug Douglas in Fiscal Folly kept up the pressure on the leaders, coming through to finish second behind Kiffs with Fiscal Folly third.

In even worse conditions on Sunday the fleet braved the elements to race round the same course.

Over the long beats to Beech Hill, Nigel Tullett and Charles Scott in Kiffs enjoyed close racing with Five and Graham Murray and Paul Haslam in Fever with close tacking again the order of the day.

Simply Spiffing and Frank Kelly and Carole Berry in Fiscal Folly kept up pressure on the leaders throughout the race.

In a closely-contested finish Kiffs, on port tack, crossed the line just ahead of right-of-way boat Fever on starboard, but a signalled protest was withdrawn later as both Kiffs and Five were disqualified for being over the line at the start leaving Fever the winner from Fiscal Folly with Simply Spiffing third.

Results: Saturday: 1 N. & G. Tullett, Kiffs; 2 A. Buckley & J. Wright, Simply Spiffing; 3 Frank Kelly & D. Douglas, Fiscal Folly.

Sunday: 1 G. Murray & P. Haslam, Fever; 2 F. Kelly & C. Berry, Fiscal Folly; 3 Simply Spiffing.

n SEVERE conditions meant there were no entries for last Saturday's RWYC 17-foot class race. The last race for the fleet will be tomorrow for the Trapp and Lydall Cups and Barkhill Trophy. Chas Ingham's Chameleon is leading both the Points and Averages.

n WITH brilliant sunshine, the penultimate race of the season for Killington Windsurfers brought a light north easterly so sail pumping was the order of the day.

Dan Jackson made life more interesting as he had to use his big 7.5 sq metre short-board sail as he had not brought his long-board sail. Gill Ainsworth sailed well all evening to take second overall despite a bad start in the last race.

Yet again Phil Atherton came out the evening's winner, increasing his lead in the league over Bill Davison who was absent.

With only one more week of racing, Atherton is odds-on favourite for the trophy.

Overall result: 1 P. Atherton, 2 G. Ainsworth, 3 D. Jackson.