After the wet and wild conditions of the last two weekends conditions in Southampton Water were so light that all Royal Southampton Yacht Club racing was cancelled.

But the Hamble Winter Series got underway after a 30-minute delay.

The ever-eager Mumm 30 fleet, now with ten entries, proved over-excitable and had a general recall on their first race.

Re-started with the Sigma 38 fleet 20 minutes later, David Ovington in Ovington Boats Like resumed his winning ways by taking the first race and then coming second in the second Mumm race behind John Nesbit in Finns McCoul II.

The now very strong IRC 1 Class gained another new entry this week when Kit Hobday's Corby 41 Independent Bear Mk II scored a good second place behind Peter Morton's Mills 50 Mandrake.

At the half-way point in the series, IRC 2 is developing into a contest between Paul Churchill in Splashdown Shakermaker and Justin Slawson in The Big Cheese.

This week Churchill won with Slawson third. Second place went to the X-99 Espresso owned by Simon Slater, David Mansell and John Egan.

The Sigma 38 fleet had a new winner. John Gillies, helming the RAF entry Red Arrow, flew past David Aisher's Yeoman XXVIII to win by 35 seconds.

The downwind legs really sorted the men from the boys and everyone had their own idea of the best route from the top mark, with a wide spread of boats across the Solent.

Peter Baines, helming the X-332 X-Celerator, tightened his grip on IRC 3 with another win. Russell Hodgson's entry is now the only boat left with a 100 per cent record this year.

IRC 4 and Sigma 33s shared a course away from the bigger boats. Peter Smith in Scorpion (IRC4) and Ben Richards' Lucent (Sigma 33) both won their respective classes for the second time.

On the Meon shore conditions were even more difficult for the White fleets and, when the wind finally arrived it was only just sufficient for racing. Although there was less tide than out in the middle of the Solent it was to have a significant effect on the outcome of most fleets.

First away were the Sportsboats, with most heading into the Solent for the favourable tide. Once round the windward mark they sailed inshore to avoid the currents.

The Cork 1720 and Melges 24 classes followed the same pattern but by the time the 707s started a large area of calm had developed inshore which left half the fleet stranded. Boats that stayed out in the tide on the downwind leg held the breeze and made large gains.

And at the bottom mark the wind faded just in time to collect most of the Sportsboats, 1720s and the Melges 24s.

What was left of the wind was effectively blanketed by the 707s coming into the mark from further out. The few who managed to wriggle out of the confusion went on to claim success.

Geoff Gibbons sailing his Beneteau 25 Penguin Power was first boat in any class to finish and won the Sportsboat class.

Dermot Crean sailing his new 1720 Floating Charge won his class and Nick Bishop, sailing Fiver, won the small Melges 24 class.

Nick Roberts' 3 little Pigs made a big gain at the leeward mark which he kept until the end.

In IRC 5 Ray Nash in the 1/4 tonner Odd Job had a good first beat, skirted the edge of the 'no wind' area and was a comfortable winner of the class.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.