WALTON and Frinton Yacht Club boats competed in races three and four of the Haven Series.

Conditions were excellent, with a warm but strong breeze of between 15 and 22 knots.

This gave the competitors an excellent sail.

On Saturday, in the main IRC series, class two were first off with a good beat out to Pennyhole Buoy. Walton boats Zero Gravitas and Rainbow were mid-fleet as Eclipse continued her excellent form to be right up with the faster boats and clearly leading her class on handicap.

The faster boats in class one set off 15 minutes later and Blue Beeste continued to show she is the boat to beat.

She led the fast fleet in pursuit of the slower boats ahead.

Blue Beeste's sister ship, Crikey, struggled to keep up but showed her crew are getting to grips with their new boat.

Blue Beeste went on to take line honours, having sailed through the entire slow fleet and recorded her third straight win.

Eclipse (Des Cowan, HPYC) was second overall and first in class two.

Crikey (Parker and Blake) were third and Rainbow (Hale and Farrance) fourth.

Similar conditions, but just a tad more breeze, greeted the competitors for race four on Sunday.

Geoff Parker and Tom Blake had beefed up their crew to an impressive ten people and this was to pay dividends as she was able to sail more upright and slip past Blue Beeste at the start and lead her round the race course.

The battle between the two X332s was close and with Blue Beeste managing to cross the finish line just 29 seconds behind Crikey, she was able to maintain her perfect score of four firsts in the four races after handicap.

However, the margin of victory was just 11 seconds and the Crikey crew were justifiably pleased with their performance.

Des Cowan, in his Contessa 33 Eclipse, was third overall.

After four races, Blue Beeste is firmly in control on four points, with Eclipse laying second on nine points. Crikey has moved up to third with 17 points.

On Saturday, the second Haven Handicap race was held for the more cruising yachts.

Dabtoe (Sunfast 3200), sailed by the Rebel Trust cadets, finished fourth, Martin Coomber, First Light of Clyde (first 42), was sixth and Leopoldo Muller (westerly Oceanuest) was seventh.

The next yacht racing for the Walton boats is on the weekend of July 15 and 16.