There was a splendid entry of 23 Lasers and 32 Merlins for the joint Open Meeting for the two classes at Chichester Yacht Club last Sunday.

In the Laser fleet the prizes were easily assigned with Steve Cockerill taking three wins, Charles Baillie-Strong three seconds and Chris Creak three thirds. The leading Radial rig sailor was Jake Jefferies and the second Andy Clare from Chichester YC, who in his first Open and third sail in this class, steadily climbed further up the fleet in each succeeding race.

Among the Merlins things were tighter. William Warren and Rachel from Shoreham SC, finished fifth overall.

Final results: Merlin Rockets: 1 Time Zulu - John Bell & Graham Williamson (Hampton SC), 2 Smart Cookie - Patrick Anna Blake (Cookham Reach SC) 3 Ra! - Tom Stewart & Kieran Collacott (Northampton SC).

Lasers: 1 Steve Cockerill (Emsworth Slipper SC), 2 Charles Bastille Strong (Stokes Bay SC) 3 Chris Creak (Itchenor SC).

Hastings and St Leonards held races seven and eight of their Spring Series last Sunday.

The morning Laser fleet race was won by Roy Sandford ahead of Dave Hall and Rex Patching. In the Topper fleet John Wiseman took the honours by a narrow margin from Martin Watson.

The most exciting race was in the Dart 16s between the Wiseman sisters, Laura and Clare, and Barry Duck with Simon Terry. Wiseman squeezed in to take first position. In the Handicap Race Neil Struys and Charlotte Duck (Shearwater) came first with Peter and Martin Shore (Mirror) second.

In the afternoon Sandford repeated his success to take over Hall with a convincing lead. Barry Duck and Simon Terry made a good recovery after a poor start but Laura and John Wiseman maintained the lead in the Dart 16s category.

Ollie Page from Lancing SC spent two weeks in Dubai during Easter staying with his new 29er crew, Chris Graham.

Ollie and Chris spent most of the time blending their teamwork patterns and in doing so sailed Hobie 405, Laser 2, Laser 4000 and a couple of catamarans - Hobie 16 and a K1.

The 29er pair ended their two weeks together by entering the Al Rabic Open Regatta, a three day event for Modern Sailing Boats at the Emirates Heritage Club. Page went for the Topper Class and Graham the Laser Radials and both took the honours in their class.

In Lancing SC's final two races in their Easter Series. Lasers dominated the AM Fast Fleet race as did the Laser 4000 in the PM race, but in the end it was the RS600 of Alex Koukourakis who took the overall first place with the Laser of Roger Dowty second and Chris Foster and Tony Wright sailing the Laser 4000 third.

Sunday's Fast Fleet results: Sunday AM - 1 Paul Fewster (Laser), 2 Ian Beale (Laser), 3 Andy Carter (Laser).

Sunday PM - 1 Peter Matthews & Gavin Hardman (Laser 4000), 2 Chris Foster & Tony Wright (Laser 4000), 3 Chris Stevens & Andy Kaiser (Laser 4000). Sunday's Slow Fleet results: Sunday AM - 1 Mark Lloyd (Laser Radial), 2 Mike Croker (Laser Radial), 3 Len Eastwood (Laser Radial). Sunday PM - 1 Mark Lloyd (Laser Radial), 2 Mike Croker (Laser Radial), 3 Alan Simmons (Streaker).

Sussex Yacht Club's Salty Shell Saturday event was won by Warwick Baker in his Javelin with crew Ben Cooper. On Sunday the final race in the river was won by Peter Bennett (Solo).

In Sussex YC's Meadows Mug Handicap Series Tony Cross's Enigma was first over the line followed by Robin Stevenson's Cow's Rig but both were unplaced on handicap corrected time. Godfrey Hix sailing his 26' Horizon Ghylly was first again and with his other two wins and a second placing leads the series. Janie Smallridge and Duchess were second and Doug Beanlands and Cloud Nine were third.

Hove's Helen Armour aboard the yacht Logica has just finished 40 days of hard sailing. They finished the fifth leg of the BT Challenge in eighth after a good run in to Cape Town. The team are now placed fourth overall.

miles to La Rochelle starting on - 1 Paul Fewster (Laser), 2 Ian Beale (Laser), 3 Andy Carter (Laser). Sunday PM - 1 Peter Matthews & Gavin Hardman (Laser 4000), 2 Chris Foster & Tony Wright (Laser 4000), 3 Chris Stevens & Andy Kaiser (Laser 4000).

In the Slow Fleet Mike Croker (Laser Radial) continued his battle of Easter Monday with Mark Lloyd, both sailing Laser Radials. moving up the overall list with two fourth places last Sunday was Diana Croker who took overall fourth place.

Sunday's Slow Fleet results: Sunday AM - 1 Mark Lloyd (Laser Radial). 2.Mike Croker (Laser Radial) 3.Len Eastwood (Laser Radial).

Sunday PM - 1.Mark Lloyd (Laser Radial) 2.Mike Croker (Laser Radial) 3.Alan Simmons (Streaker).

Sussex Yacht Club dinghies were out last weekend taking part in the Club's Salty Shell event. Saturday's race had a course set out to sea when a northerly force three wind tested all helms and crew. Warwick Baker in his Javelin with crew Ben Cooper won Saturday's race. The wind increased on Sunday and the Committee thought it prudent to hold the final race in the river. Peter Bennett in his Solo took the honours with Warwick and Howie second.

Sussex Yacht Club's cruisers were out again last Sunday for race four in their Meadows Mug Handicap Series. The brisk breeze, force four southerly, allowed the race officer to set a fairly long course comprising of a square and a triangle. From the start the fleet headed west to a mark (W) a short distance away set to separate the slow and fast yachts as soon as possible. The course then headed due south to a mark (B) some 2.5 miles out to sea with the wind against so that the fleet had to tack back and forth to reach the mark.

On rounding the fleet headed east to the New Sewer Bouy (D) the jibe mark, some three miles distant and set three miles off shore from Shoreham Harbour. After jibing the spinnakers came out for the run back to a mark (E) laid close to shore then through the start line and completion of "the square". The fleet then headed west again to £), south to (B) and back to the shore under spinnaker again, around (E) and onto the finish line laid in transit with a mast onshore and the (W) mark completing the triangle.

Trony Cross's Enigma was first over the line followed by Robin Stevenson's Cow's Rig but both were unplaced on handicap corrected time. Godfrey Hix sailing his 26' Horizon Ghylly was first again and with his other two wins and a second placing leads the series. Janie Smallridge and Duchess were second and Doug Beanlands and Cloud Nine were third.

Hove's Helen Armour aboard the yacht Logica has just finished 40 days of hard sailing. This fifth leg of the BT Challenge - a race around the world the wrong way - has seen many incidents including nearly losing skipper Jeremy Troughton and the loss of their C-Sat communication system.

The team finally finished in eighth place after a good run in to Cape Town. The teams were feeling a little disappointed with their result and Helen echoed the team's sentiments when she said: "We've had a good leg and it's difficult to see where we went wrong to be sitting in 10th position having been second for so long". The team are now placed fourth overall.

The next leg, penultimate leg six, is another month long haul, 5820 miles to La Rochelle - this starts on Sunday May 13, 2001. After that the final seventh leg is a real three day sprint back to Southampton, arriving hopefully on June 23.