BYSTANDERS on the shores of Southampton Water may have worried they were hallucinating after spotting Darth Vader at the helm of a yacht.

With Princess Leia on the bow and R2D2 working winches, it looked like a scene from an alternative Star Wars movie. And the pirates racing alongside confirmed this was no ordinary Sunday morning excursion for the sea-faring folk of the Royal Southampton Yacht Club.

It was their traditional charity pursuit race, with a clause requiring fancy dress written into the race rules for the one-off event, raising money for the Sail Training Association.

Gentle winds and smooth seas made the going uneventful but the pantomime crews made the most of the sunshine.

Captain of Racing Peter Batesons' yacht Starspray was transformed into the Star wars spaceship and Scarlet Oyster turned up on the line complete with pirates who took it over, making the original crew walk the plank over the bow into the freezing seas.

Winners of the fancy dress trophy were David and Diana Gebbett aboard Crackpot. Their crew rig was black tie, the men in dinner jackets and white scarves, the women with long dresses and feather boas, all of them belting out opera into the chilly airs.

The course took the yachts out on a running start from Netley buoy down Southampton water out to East Knoll in The Solent, then on one reach to South Bramble and another back to Deck. The course continued with a series of beats and close reaches in zigzag fashion up Southampton water to a finish at After Barn.

For nearly half the race Tony Hanfrey in his Mustang 30 Revival II was ahead but, on the beat back up from Coronation, she was overtaken by The Red Dragon, who led for another 30 minutes. She in turn was overtaken by Shades of Blue II sailed by Stuart Danby and his son John who went on to win by nearly three minutes.

Peter Jones in his X-332 Hoodlum overtook The Red Dragon at the last mark and finished second, with The Red Dragon third and Blazer fourth.

The finish was even closer in the club handicapped yacht class with David and Audrey Octon in their Starlight 39 APOS overtaking the Hunter 707 Tiger Feet towards the end to win by just 34 seconds.

Alan Rudge and crew aboard their Grand Soleil 345 Songbird came third with Two of Diamonds fourth nearly five minutes later. Unfortunately the Dehler 43 Drake followed a smaller yacht inshore up the Netley side, and ended up aground for four hours as a result. Luckily no damage occurred.

Although five multihulls started, the light winds prevented three from finishing with Peter Jenkins in Shakatak beating Scooby III by six minutes to win. Results:

IRC Class: 1 Shades of Blue II (J-110) Stuart Danby, 2 Hoodlum (X-332) Peter Jones, 3 The Red Dragon (Stewart 36) Geoff Lynch. Club Class: 1 APOS (Starlight 39) David Octon, 2 Tiger Feet (Hunter 707) John Cooper & Ian Townend, 3 Songline (Grand Soleil 345) Alan Rudge. Multhull Class: 1 Shakatak (Farrier 28) Peter Jenkins, 2 Scooby III (Dragonfly 800) Simon Forbes.

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