DESPITE two of her key crew members being unavailable, Blue Beeste enjoyed a perfect weekend in rounds three and four of the Haven Series.

The three Walton and Frinton Yacht Club yachts headed out to the starting area off Harwich in near perfect conditions on the opening day

Blue Beeste (Penfold/Jenkins) was joint leading the series going into the weekend but had a setback before leaving the marina as two of her key crew were unable to attend so Beth Newland enlisted her twin sisters to make up the numbers.

Race Officer Alec Moss set a long course and did an excellent job of getting true windward legs and a fair and interesting course for the race.

Class two set off on the first leg out to Stone Banks with Spirit of Defiance (Parker/ Blake/ Stephens) having a good start with David Evans making a guest appearance and helming the boat.

Class one set off 15 minutes later.

Blue Beeste (Penfold/Jenkins) chose the pin end of the line and was able to hoist her kite and lead the faster boats in pursuit of the class two stragglers.

Due to her keeping clear air, Blue Beeste was able to round the windward mark in front of her challengers and soon picked off the slower boats ahead.

Ickle Jura (J97, Kevin Moll) has been consistently jousting with Blue Beeste for honours in the series but despite having Ian Kirkpatrick helming the boat, she was unable to catch Penfold and Jenkins in the X332.

Blue Beeste was able to post her second win of the series both in class and overall.

Spirit of Defiance managed second in class two and fifth overall and Zero Gravitas (SJ320, Brooke) took third in class two and sixth overall.

The following day produced far more challenging conditions, with the breeze gusting up to 23 knots and sail choice was crucial as racing was more frantic.

Class two started with the run out to the first mark, both SOD and Zero Gravitas had mid-fleet starts so had work to do to catch the leaders.

Blue Beeste had a pre-start joust with the aggressive helm on Ickle Jura but still managed to hit the line bang on the gun and get away clear ahead.

The conditions seemed to suit the slower boats in class two as Blue Beeste led the faster boats round the course but they followed the leading boats from the slow fleet across the finish line.

The battle for the overall win was always going to be close between the X332 and the J97 but when the results were posted, Blue Beeste had done enough to complete a perfect weekend by winning by just seven seconds.

With four races gone, Blue Beeste is leading both class one and overall.

Spirit of Defiance added third in class and seventh overall to her scores and now lays second in class two and fifth overall.

Zero Gravitas added a fifth in class and an eighth overall leaving her laying in seventh overall in the series and fourth in class two.