Race Officer, Richard Morley, set a windward / leeward course for races 7 and 8 of the Winter Series at Hastings & St Leonards Sailing Club. Sailors beat windward before running downwind to a leeward gate and repeating.

Skies were initially grey and winds force two from the north-west but it wasn’t long before the sun broke through to create cold but beautiful sailing conditions.

Chris Bennett (Laser Radial) had a good start ahead of favourites Matthew Wiseman (Laser Radial) and Hugh Ashford (Laser Radial), the latter of whom misjudged the line, and began at the back of the fleet.

Beating down from the leeward gate, Bennett threw away his lead with a course error, and Ashford began to claw his way back to the front.

Juan Ces & Amber Lloyd-Briscoe sailing a Buzz

By the third lap Ashford was leading and Wiseman was close on his transom but failing to find a way past. It looked like Ashford had the race in the bag but at the final pass through the leeward gate Wiseman exited on the opposite side to Ashford enabling a shorter distance to the finish to snatch victory by a matter of boat lengths.

By the start of the second race the wind had increased to force two to three. Wiseman had the best start and led the race from start to finish.

Ashford found himself again playing catch-up, this time pulling himself up to third, just behind Lucie Barrie (Laser 4.7) who pipped him by five seconds on handicap.

Elsewhere in the eleven boat fleet there were a few capsizes as wind gusts increased.

Overall, it had been close racing in superb winter conditions.

Matthew Wiseman leads the series which concludes this Sunday.

Sparkling sailing conditions in the Winter Series