THERE was an excellent turnout for the first race in Walton and Frinton Yacht Club's Summer Series.

The weather was warm but, unfortunately, there was absolutely no breeze as the dinghies rigged.

Race officer Chris Brooke set an interesting course, with plenty of opportunities for shortening, in case the wind didn't appear.

After a delay of 30 minutes, Brooke decided to start both classes together.

This made for an exciting start, with David Wood, in his Solo, and Martin Jenkins, in his Phantom, getting away cleanest from the line.

With a promising three to four knots of breeze, the large fleet made its way down tide to the first mark at Twizzle.

First round the mark was the Solo of John Sewell and Jenkins' Phantom.

Unfortunately, as soon as the leaders turned against the tide, the wind dropped completely and the whole fleet simply drifted down tide and collected in a large gaggle, drifting slowly backwards with the current.

After 45 minutes of frustrating drifting, a light breeze started to kick in and Jenkins was in a position to lead the fleet away from the doldrums and slowly make progress to the next mark.

With nearly an hour of the race gone and the fleet not having covered any distance, the race was clearly going to be a benefit for the slowest boats who, in real terms, had picked up seven or eight minutes on the Phantoms and faster boats on handicap.

In class one, John Summerfield was able to give chase to the leading Phantom and get away from the bunch by picking out a wind band on the southern bank of the river.

The four Solos, being the slowest boats in the class, had a field day and took the first four places on handicap.

First was Summerfield, second Sewell, third Tim Oxley and fourth Wood.

Jenkins' Phantom was fifth and James Oxley was sixth, in his Laser.

In the slower fleet, class two, the outcome was the same with the slowest, highest handicap boats having the advantage. Tony Blake and crew Barry, in their Jewel, won their first race, having just launched for the summer.

Anthony and Harry Wood, in their Mirror dinghy, showed dogged determination to finish in the trying conditions and came second, one place ahead of Sue Wood, in her Laser 4.7.

The next race is June 5.