WHAT a fabulous day last Sunday eventually turned out to be for the nine boats of Evesham club members.

Ian Haywood won both races but that doesn't tell of the joy, thrills and excitement that all the sailors experienced.

With a start downstream to take two buoys set just above the weir, Simon and Adam Styles in their Lark, Haywood's British Moth, Peter Green in his Solo and the Feva of Jeremy Higson were all locked together.

The Lark began to pull away but, with the handicap system against them, they would need a big gap to claim the race as theirs.

Higson was still just about in the lead with his favourable rating and was holding his own until a capsize ended his chances.

The finish gun was also the signal to bring out the calculators to show that the Styles had to settle for third behind Haywood and Green.

The second race was similar to the first as the Styles' boat streaked away with white water cascading from their bow.

Green did his best to stay but finally fell away. Stuart Bon-ham, meanwhile, sailed his own race and kept going to take a well-deserved third place.

Haywood was struggling for a long time but finally got his boat set properly and then roared along trying to make up lost ground the rest of the fleet couldn't keep up the pace of the leaders and slowly fell away.

Again the result was decided by the calculator and Haywood was adjudged to have finished in front of Simon and Adam by less than half a second after more than an hour of superb enjoyment.