AFTER THREE days of gale forecasts, the Royal Windermere Flying Fifteen fleet braved the elements to sail the deciding race for the Autumn Bowl in North Lake and were rewarded with clearing skies and occasional sunshine highlighting the snow-sprinkled Langdale summits.

An inviting starboard course took the fleet from the Henholme start with a triangle up to Claife across to Ray Rigg and back to the Henholme before a Claife/Henholme sausage then a final triangle.

After a slow start, Philip and David Snewin in Freyja sailed close to the shore in the brisk north to north-westerly wind to reach the windward mark ahead of Tony Cheeseright/Rod Mostyn in Toff and Doug Cartwright/Roger Brown in Ffor Joy.

Freyja maintained a commanding lead, keeping the boat flat on the fine spinnaker reaches and taking advantage of windshifts on each lap.

Competition for second place built up over the final legs as Ffor Joy almost caught Toff.

At the start of the race, Ffor Joy and Bev Armera's Ffidget were joint leaders in the Autumn Bowl.

With one discard over the four races, the boats still had equal points but Ffidget took the title with a first and second place against her rival's first and third best results.

A strong Royal Windermere YC team competed in the Flying Fifteen open team racing at Bassenthwaite.

Steve Goacher/Phil Evans in 3721, Nigel Tullett/San Rayner in Flotsam and David Brockbank/Chris Ducker in Fever dominated on both days for a convincing win.

The RWYC Flying Fifteen fleet are hosts for the Northern Championship over the Bank Holiday weekend of May 3-5.