Moose On the Loose put the record time under serious threat in winning the 25th annual Royal Escape from Brighton to Fecamp.

The Brighton Marina yacht was just ten seconds outside the fastest ever time in 7hrs.55mins.32secs, with most of the remaining 89 boats breaking 12 hours.

It was all a far cry from the first ever royal escape back in 1651.

That was when King Charles II escaped to France following his defeat by Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester. The journey took him three days and the race commemorates that historic voyage.

The 89 yachts provided a spectacular sight as they began the race off Brighton beach, opposite The Old Ship Hotel.

They responded to the flag from the Sussex Yacht Club's Committee boat, the large wooden ketch SY Rosita.

Skippers this year were helped by a starting cannon preceded by warning shots, a radio countdown and an RNLI maroon released from the Old Ship Hotel by the Mayor of Brighton and Hove.

The race consisted of a long leg from Brighton Marina to the Greenwich Meridian Light Vessel, for which there was a following wind sometimes rising to a force five.

For most boats this was an exercise in spinnaker management.

Some flew spinnakers for the whole leg but for others, who took a different course to allow for tidal drift and other effects, frequent changes were required. The final leg was a broad reach.

Many yachts were in the harbour before the wind died, but some were stopped within a mile of the finishing line.

Of those, the majority opted to motor for the last few minutes but a few brave purists waited for the tide and wind to change, keeping the finish monitoring team, led by Frank Kay, on duty.

The race was handicapped between IRC Fleet, Portsmouth Yardstick Fast Fleet, Portsmouth Yardstick Slow Fleet and the Opted Motor Sailing Fleet. The prizewinners for each fleet were:

IRC Fleet: 1.Moose on the Loose (Duncan Money), 2 Sleeper (Jonty Layfield), 3 Voador (Martin Bayfield).

Portsmouth Yardstick Fleet winner: Ciarionet (Paul March). Fastest from other squadron: Ambition II (Colin Gisby).

Second in each squadron: Freebird (Mike Tierney), Cloud Nine (Doug Beanlands).

Third in each squadron: Heavens Above (Chris Anderson), Ciao (Tom Milligan).

Motor Sailing: Blue Yonder (Ron Lord)

Corporate Challenge Cup: Great Kerfuffle (sponsored by Keith Day Ltd).

Editors' Scroll: Ascent (Alan Salvidge family).

Line Honours Py Fleet: Moonlight Saunter (David Skinner).

Line Honours Trophy, Channel Handicap: Moose on the Loose (Duncan Money).

Team Trophy: Brighton Marina Yacht Club.

At Chichester, a menagerie fleet raced in the last two races in the Lady Todd Trophy Series. Linda and Ian Barnett stormed round in the first race in their Buss to take first place on handicap corrected time.

Derek Jackman was second in his Solo, followed by Nick and Biddy Colbourne, who triumphed over a series of difficulties peculiar to their RS 400 and John and Pauline Cox in theirs, with Lesley and Steve Kelsall taking fifth place in their Lark.

In the second race, Nick and Biddy Colbourne took first place, although still having great difficulties with hoisting and lowering their kite.

John and Pauline Cox were joint second with Tony Purser in his RS600.

Ben Godwin was fourth in his JRS600, John Miles and Tony Mobbs were fifth in their Five-O-Five.

Chichester's Up The Creek race, a 20-mile contest up all the creeks of the harbour, saw about a dozen boats at the start line.

Nick and Biddy Colbourne began in their RS400 but after they reached the Fishbourne mark their mainsail slowly began to come down the mast and so they returned to the club.

Undeterred, they quickly rigged their GP14 and set off to go round Fishbourne again before setting off down the Harbour and eventually winning the race.

Hove's Helen Armour has helped Logica take the lead in the BT Challenge.

Logica continued to defy expectations, increasing its lead over the rest of the fleet except Compaq, the closest yacht to them.

Both yachts set leg records for a 24-hour run with Logica doing 249 miles.