CHALLENGING weather conditions gave competitors a real test during the second of The Royal Windermere Yacht Club's 'Race Weeks.'

Day 1 saw very strong southerly breezes and cloudy conditions for the Windermere Class 17 Foot fleet, which intensified and forced race officer Steve Bewsher to shorten the course in the South Lake.

'Liberty,’ helmed by Colin Bentley, won the race, followed by Falcon II (Tony Rothwell) in second place, and ‘Capella’ (Nigel Thomson) third.

Day 2 presented a completely different weather picture with hot, sunny conditions.

Start was delayed until a light southerly breezed picked up but once it did, competition was close until ‘Chameleon’ (Nigel Tullett) and ‘Fathom’ (Graham Murray) pulled ahead, coming first and second respectively.

The steady ‘Falcon II’ led the rest of the fleet into third place.

Amongst the classic boats, ‘Capella’ (Richard Thompson) came first, ‘Atholl’ (Nick Aubrey) second and ‘Waterwitch’ (Richard Broughton) third.

In the second race of the day, the breeze faded and the course was shortened, and ‘Chameleon’ and ‘Fathom’ continued their head-to-head battle, with the latter edging it this time.

A near photo finish took place for third spot, which was narrowly won by ‘Falcon II’.

Similarly, the racing was very close among the classic boats, with ‘Atholl’ taking first place, ‘Waterwitch’ second and ‘Capella’ third, although hotly pursued by ‘Whisper’ (Gay Crossley) on the downwind legs.

Day three also saw sunny conditions and extremely hot temperatures.

The fleet had glorious conditions and light-to-medium south westerly breezes for their two races in the South Lake, again with a windward leeward course.

In the first race, stiff competition took place between ‘Pilgrim’ (David Milburn) and ‘Whisper’, chased hard by ‘Chameleon’.

First across the finishing line was ‘Chameleon’, second ‘Pilgrim’ and third ‘Fathom,’ while among the classics, ‘Atholl’ finished first with ‘Snark II’ (Simon McVey) second and ‘Whisper’ third.

The curtain came down on Race Week with the second race, during which the breeze picked up and became blustery.

The fleet remained very close but ‘Chameleon’ showed an extremely impressive performance and came first, with ‘Fathom’ second and ‘Liberty’ (Robert Richardson) third.

Among the classics, ‘Atholl’ took another first, ‘Waterwitch’ came second and ‘Capella’ third.

The dinghies also saw some exciting competition last week with ‘Ultra SONIC’ (Nigel Hutchinson) winning two races.

In the first race, an excellent afternoon’s competition ensued and coming second after the Solo ‘Ultra SONIC’ were Julian and Claire Maclaine (sailing a GP 14), followed by Pat McVey and Angela Green (also a GP14), and in the second of the dinghies’ recent races, the leader board was identical.