FINE weather and frisky winds brought thrilling racing to the third round of the Barclays Marine Finance Warsash Spring Series last Sunday leading to overboardings, groundings, a broken rudder and an entanglement with a lobster pot line.

Winds of 25-30 knots and a strong tide meant boats had difficulty making a good start and some struggled to get to the line, though there were no general recalls and no boats over the line.

In the eastern Solent, three Sigma 38s opted to cut corners over the Bramble bank with predictable results.

Beefeater II led the way and stuck fast, needing help from the lifeboat, but two other boats that followed her on to the bank were luckier.

One stuck fast while the third managed to tack away as her keel touched the bottom.

Disaster also hit one of the fastest boats in the fleet, a Ker 11.3 metre IRM yacht when she ran into a lobster pot line and went from ten knots to stationary in seconds, before eventually freeing the line from the bulb on her keel.

Red Arrow, the RAF's Sigma 38 needed help from the committee boat to recover her spinnaker, which was flying from the masthead, with all sheets and guys lost.

Red Arrow also lost a crew member overboard, who was quickly recovered.

Recovering spinnakers was just one of the problems for the committee boats as they wallowed in the rough waters to clock home over 200 boats on two separate start and finish lines.

One of the smallest boats in the fleet, the 23-foot National Sonata Cobweb broke her rudder in the tough conditions.

"We were on a reach and all the other boats around us broached," explained skipper Matt Glasgow.

"We stayed upright but with the force something had to give and the rudder snapped."

Glasgow and his crew were able to anchor, and sort themselves out and then get back to Hamble without a rudder.

In the IRM fleet the battle continued between the Farr 40s and the Ker 11.3 metres. Nicholas Hartshorn's El Gringo, a Ker 11.3 metre, took the first race, ahead of I-Site and Assegai.

In the second race Assegai, a Farr 40, took revenge coming home first with Fair Do's and I-Site behind.