WALTON and Frinton Yacht Club held the second race in their Winter Series.

It took place in near perfect conditions and the winner was Martin Jenkins.

With a breeze of eight to 12 knots, bright sunshine and temperatures nudging into double figures, it was a treat for the competitors to blow away some of the winter cobwebs.

Race officer Chris Brooke set a good long course, taking the fleet out onto the Wade before turning back up the Twizzle with a good run down to Watch buoy, before beating back to Spit buoy at the mouth of the Twizzle.

The Phantom of Chris Nelson was the wrong side of the start line but the rest of the fleet got away cleanly, with Jenkins taking an early lead in his Phantom.

At the first turning mark, James Oxley had a momentary lapse of concentration and capsized on rounding.

The following boats had to avoid the horizontal Laser and Geoff Parker suffered some damage to his new Hadron when Nelson tried to squeeze through a gap that wasn't there.

Jenkins was able to stretch away from the chasing fleet and continued to build his lead throughout the race.

The Lasers of Dominic Jacobs and Oxley had a great tussle the whole way round and the Solo of John Sewell was always in contention.

After an hour and ten minutes of racing, Jenkins' Phantom crossed the finishing line at the club with a comfortable lead over the fleet.

Parker was going well in his Hadron and crossed the line second, but it was clear that the challenge for second on handicap was going to come from one of the two Lasers or the Solo.

After handicaps had been applied, Jenkins was the winner by a couple of minutes from Sewell's Solo, with the two Lasers finishing very close together.

Jacobs just edged Oxley out of it for third place but there was less than 30 seconds between the second and fourth-place boats.

With two races sailed, Jenkins is moving into a strong position with two firsts.

However, with three races still to be sailed, the series is very much still up for grabs.

The next race is on Sunday, February 12, with another 11.15am start.

Results: 1st Martin Jenkins, Phantom; 2nd John Sewell, Solo; 3rd Dominic Jacobs, Laser; 4th James Oxley, Laser; 5th Geoff Parker, Hadron; 6th Simon Hipkin, Ok; 7th Chris Nelson, Phantom.