David HannantThe Open Regatta on Oulton Broad on Sunday was a first, with a mixture of RS designs forming one series and Lasers the other, with each sailing four races and counting their best three.David Hannant

The Open Regatta on Oulton Broad on Sunday was a first, with a mixture of RS designs forming one series and Lasers the other, with each sailing four races and counting their best three.

The wind started as a northwesterly and ended the day as a westerly and was always strong enough to capsize the unwary.

The 11 RS dinghies included boats from four different designs, three of which were visiting boats, and the first three races were dominated by Duncan Madin sailing his RS300. He won the first three races on handicap including the first two on the water as he beat the faster RS400s. His only failure was the last race by which time he was unbeatable overall and even then he came second. Behind him the RS400s sailed by Peter Matthews and Nick Barrett battled it out for second and third places and Matthews took second with a first, third and fourth places which just gave him a one-point advantage over Barrett, who was counting second, third and fourth places.

The Lasers was a far more open event as all the leading helmsmen had at least one poor result and the overall winner was not decided until near the end of the last race.

There were nine boats on the water and five of them were in contention throughout. Alan Cone won the first and last races but spoilt his chances by taking a long time to recover from a capsize in the third race.

James Large won the other two races but got off to a poor start with a seventh as his discard from the first race. Simon Beckett was another who was always in the running while Steve Cole and Jonathon Jones completed the leading pack and at the start of the last race any one of them could have won overall and they had a fine race.

In the first race only ten seconds separated the first three, Cone, Beckett and Cole taking the honours. In the second race it was Large in the lead with Tom Marfleet having his best race in second and Cone third. Large repeated his success by winning the third race from Jones with Beckett in third. Although any of them could have won with the right combination of results, Large and Cone were the favorites at the start of the final race and although Cone just won, Large's second place gave him the overall win by just one point.