A Solent packed with sailboats for the Little Britain Industry Challenge did not deter the final weekend of racing for the Red Funnel Cowes Keelboat championship series on 14-15 September.

With windward/leeward courses set from the Bramble Bank to the mainland shore near Hill Head, a good turnout particularly of Dragons and Darings enjoyed fine racing in sunshine and an ideal Force 3-4 north-easterly. It was a good weekend for Darings class captain Giles Peckham in Dauntless, who notched up two wins on Sunday, as did Julia Bailey in her Dragon, Aimee. Saturday saw wins for Devius and Decoy in the Darings, with Aimee taking one first and Chris Caws' Apalala the other in the Dragons' class.

Few Sonars turned out for this final weekend of Red Funnel racing this season, following a busy weekend last week with the nationals raced at Cowes and a European championship taking place this week in Holland.

Overall placings in the Red Funnel Cowes Keelboat championships will be announced on 28 September, when the coveted trophies will be presented at the Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club Cowes. The prizegiving starts at 1830.

Results

Etchells

Saturday

Race 1

1 Fuzzy Duck (Paul Woodman)

2 Mayhem (T.Daughton)

3 Swedish Plu (Ante Razmilovic)

Race 2

1 Swedish Blue 2 Toad (Paul Rudling), 3 Mayhem.

Sunday

Race 1

1 Mayhem

2 Swedish Blue

3 Mtu Moja Na Umbwe (Nils Razmilovic)

Race 2

1 Swedish Blue

2 Evelina (C.Torrens)

3 Mtu Moja Na Umbwe

Dragons

Saturday

Race 1

1 Apalala (Chris Caws, Field)

2 Aimee (Julia Bailey, Richardson)

3 Asa (B.Hancock)

Race 2

1 Aimee

2 Apalala

3 Virago (Nicholson, Lloyd and Squire-Sanders)

Sunday

Race 1

1 Aimee

2 Apalala

3 Luder (F.Solly)

Race 2

1 Aimee

2 Apalala

3 Fanfare (M.Issaias)

Darings

Saturday

Race 1

1 Devius (Leech and Cassell)

2 Double Knot (Hackman, Babington-Smith, Broadhurst, Clare and Matthews)

3 Decanter (Jeremy Preston)

Race 2

1 Decoy (Norton, Chaplin and Goodman)

2 Double Knot

3 Dauntless (Giles Peckham, Porter and Carver)

Sunday

Race 1

1 Dauntless

2 Dynamite (Balme, Stride, Collins, Stephens, Dogilewski and Winton)

2 Audax (McNeill, Espenham, Romer-Lee, Langford and Tilly)

Race 2

1 Dauntless, 2 Audax, 3 Medina (Byatt, Guiness, Magan, Williams and Spear-Cole)

Sonars

Saturday (One race only)

1 Geronimo (James Day), 2 Pisces (Trevor Scovell

Yachting World, 18 September 2002