TRICIA Wood took first place in Arden Sailing Club’s opening scratch race in blustery conditions at their Defford base.

Simon Newman capsized his Streaker on lap three of the first race after struggling to avoid Tricia Wood (Comet) and then being hit by the same gust of wind.

Niall Campbell and Jane Smee (Enterprise) led from start to finish in the four-and-a-half lap race but Wood nudged them into second place on corrected times. Newman finished third and Keith Stevens (Comet), fourth.

At the back of the fleet, the two red-sailed Mirrors of Ken Pinfield and Kevin Powell had a separate tussle, with first one and then the other in the ascendancy.

Both had to sail their last lap in the rain and Pinfield just held the lead at the finish, despite having to do a penalty turn for hitting the final marker buoy.

The second race was a long lap to Strensham Lock and back – with the sailors having to cope with the inevitable drop in westerly wind under the shelter of the Strensham ridge and trees.

Campbell and Smee led the field and managed to be sufficiently ahead of Wood’s Comet to take first place.

The rest of the fleet struggled as the fresh breeze began to die. Stevens pushed his Comet into third, with young Jacob Dorman, in his first race and sailing the club-owned Topper, finishing last on the water but taking fourth place on handicap.

He finished ahead of Newman’s Streaker, with Powell’s Mirror towed home by the safety boat.