Trophies of silver trays for the winners of the Ladies Skippers’ Race were there for the taking for small fleets of divisions two and three sailing in ideal conditions on Sunday morning February 18th. Unfortunately only Bad Habits and Perle turned up for division one so they sailed as guests with division two and three respectively.

In the light seven-knot south-easterly it was an astute decision to select Course Q (formerly I) as it provided an opportunity for some upwind work to Foam and Anchor and spinnaker runs to Marina, Little and the finish line. Gybing was also in the mix and this brought two of the division two boats undone when the kites wrapped around the forestay.

Bad Habits, skippered by Hanna Lintott, made no mistakes executing perfect spinnaker runs to skip away from the division two fleet and finish in less than an hour, although the result only provided a feel-good moment, not even average points, as it was non-points race. Amongst the division three fleet Perle, with Margaret Neville at the helm, had lots of photo opportunities sailing alongside Intuition and Deckchairs Overboard (Sue Osborne) and these are on the Keel Cloud.

In division two Pinta skippered by Clare Baxendale seized the opportunity with a win and Show Me (Alicia Tucker) pipped Farrouk (Amanda Hall) by just one second on handicap however Farrouk was fastest. Marc Carpenter handed the helm to Bindy Vitales-Jones for a win on Intuition in division three whilst Elissa Graham romped ahead to be fastest on Whispering Jack and second, with Lisa Perry on Stelfred third.