After a cloudy start to the day the sun came out to witness the first races of the Tenby Sailing Club Saturday Series.

Ten boats set out on April 1 through the relative shelter of the harbour to be met with a stiff north-westerly breeze out in the bay.

Several of the competitors stopped to wash their sails on the way out to the start and in view of the conditions additional safety cover was called for. Richard and Alistair kindly agreed to forego their swim and manned the second rhib.

The first race got under way in a solid force 4 with force 5 squalls sweeping down off the cliffs above Waterwynch.

Ted and Lucas, Dave and Maurice in Ospreys and Steve and Jas in the 400 battled it out at the front of the fleet but gear failure struck the 400 and they retired to North Beach to sort it out.

However, when the handicaps were calculated it was Nina Marsh in a Laser 4.7 who took the win by just 3 seconds from Dave and Maurice second and Ted and Lucas third.

In the second race a heavily biased start line caught out Jon Nuttall whose Phantom clipped the pin. To add insult to injury, he capsized in the course of his penalty turn. Both Ted and Lucas and Dave and Maurice capsized under spinnaker on the second lap and subsequently retired.

In the end it was Jaime and Tim’s Osprey that came through to win with just 9 seconds separating them from Steve and Jas and then a further 50 seconds to Nina in third.

Steve Leach in a Contender was fourth, Jon came in fifth and Noah Sutton in another Laser 4.7 came in sixth. With the tide turning a big SE swell was developing and with no let up in the wind, Dave and Maurice, Nina and Noah all decided to call it a day.

That left five of the faster boats to contest the third race and a slightly larger triangle was set. Both Ospreys capsized on the second lap and Ted and Lucas retired.

This time it was the turn of new member Steve Leach to post a win in his contender with Steve and Jas just 15 seconds adrift on corrected time.

Jon in the Phantom was another 30 seconds back in third and Jamie and Tim persevered to finish fourth despite a lengthy spell in the water and a broken spinnaker pole.

With racing over the fleet headed ashore to pack up and swap stories in the bar. With all three races counting towards the Dr White Cup, the trophy was won by Jaime and Tim (10 pts) with Steve Leach second (11 pts) and Jon Nuttall third (12 pts).

A closely contested series in sparkling but challenging conditions. Well done everyone.