ARDEN Sailing Club's annual RNLI benefit races held at Defford in brilliant weather drew out a good attendance from the club members but there was a disappointing light breeze.

In the first of three races, Jeremy and Michelle Griffiths (enterprise) took a commanding lead and despite his best efforts, Ralph Evans (solo) was unable to keep close enough to them to beat them on handicap. Third place went to Stuart and David Stephen (Enterprise).

Although in the first race the wind had appeared periodically, to the frustration of the even greater number of sailors participating in the second race, the appearance of the wind became ever more fickle and intermittent.

In these conditions it was a struggle to keep moving and Ralph Evans (solo) did well to pull out a significant advantage over the Griffithses (enterprise), who came in second with the comet of John Tildesley coasting home to take third place.

A very short course was set for the third and final race for which the wind conditions showed no improvement. Again the enterprise of the Griffithses and the solo of Ralph Evans were to the fore, leading the rest of the fleet by a significant margin. At the end the Griffithses prevailed and third place went to the topper of Val Jolly.

The overall placings for the three race series gave victory to the Griffithses (enterprise), second place to Ralph Evans (solo), joint third to Val Jolly (topper) and Stuart & David Stephen (enterprise), and joint fifth to Alan Browning (solo) and Richard Drinkwater (enterprise).

This seemed like the start of summer, and due to the generosity of the participants and the spectators Arden Sailing Club as usual will be forwarding a donation to the RNLI.

For those who have missed the current training course the club will be holding an open Day on June 12 as a recruiter for the next course in July.

For further details of this and the club in general contact Ray 01386 554109 or Alan 0121 453 6611