THREE boats from Walton and Frinton Yacht Club competed in the fifth and sixth races in this year's Haven Series.

Blue Beeste was particularly successful, finishing second and then victorious the following day to make it four wins from six races.

Just one more success will be enough to ensure the boat retains her title as Haven Series champion.

On day one, first up in class two were the Contessa 33 Spirit of Defiance (SOD), owned by Geoff Parker, Tom Blake and Will Stephens, and the SJ320 Zero Gravitas, owned by the Brooke family.

At the starting signal, the Contessa 33 Eclipse, owned by Des Cowan, from Haven Ports YC, was first over the line, closely followed by Zero Gravitas and SOD.

The first leg was a long spinnaker reach out to sea to Cork Ledge.

Despite close attention from Bojangles, a First Class Eight, SOD did well to keep ahead of Eclipse and follow the faster SJ 320.

Fifteen minutes later the faster boats in class one started.

However, the light breeze disappeared about a minute from the start and the fleet was marooned, trying to stem the flooding tide.

It was ten minutes before a fickle breeze set in, to help the fleet set off.

Blue Beeste, owned by Charlie Penfold and Martin Jenkins, spotted a wind band towards the Walton shore.

They split from the fleet and this move proved pivotal as Blue Beeste was able to get clearly away from the rest of class one, particularly close rival Ickle Jura.

Due to the wind change at the start, the race was always likely to favour class two.

However, Blue Beeste enjoyed one of her best performances in chasing down the slower boats and managing to catch and overtake on handicap all but the leading class two boat Eclipse.

The race was a challenging one for all the competitors and this was made more difficult by a thunder squall, which passed through the fleet on the penultimate leg.

Eclipse was first, Blue Beeste a creditable second, SOD an excellent third and Zero Gravitas fourth.

The following day, the conditions were a little more settled and both fleets started in the same breeze.

Class two was again led by the Contessa 33 Eclipse, with SOD and Zero Gravitas giving chase.

Class one set off 15 minutes later and Blue Beeste again managed an excellent start, after a joust with Ickle Jura.

The faster boats had an easier time in the more settled breeze and were soon overhauling the stragglers in class two.

Blue Beeste again had a good day and made no errors in keeping her title challenger, Ickle Jura, behind her to go on to win the race and post her fourth outright victory in the six races sailed.

Blue Beeste needs only one more win from one of the last four races to retain her title as Haven Series champion.

The battle for positions in class two is tight as SOD tries to catch her rival Eclipse.

Zero Gravitas is doing well in her first full season to currently lay third in class.

Racing resumes in September, with the last four races being sailed over two weekends.