With a forecast for the already considerable breeze to increase, a depleted fleet of 17 Hunter 707s went out for the fourth weekend of the Garmin Hamble winter series yesterday.

In the first race Censored led Jeff and Pocket Battleship round the windward mark. Over the next two laps of a biased windward/leward course these three pulled out slightly on the boats behind with Pocket Battleship taking both boats to lead on the second beat.

On the third and final round the chasing pack of Sparkle, Miss Moneypenny, Sword and Royal Thames closed up on Jeff, with Sparkle moving into third on the last run. These position remained until the finish with another win for Pocket Battleship, from Censored, Sparkle, Jeff and Miss Moneypenny.

In race two Pocket Battleship led from start to finish, but with biggest gusts of the day coming through after lap one most boats had their fair share of excitement with plenty of place changing. Crews with their kites up and filling reaped the rewards of not just places but some fantastic planing reaches, but with broaches and the inevitable ‘having to get it down at some stage’ problems some boats opted for the white sail option.

At the finish it was Pocket Battleship, Sword, Sparkle, Darkness and Jeff, but others who had spent some time in the top five Surfeit, Royal Thames, Mad Dog, Swallow and Trojan.

Overall standings in the series see Pocket Battleship comfortably ahead, with Sword second from Sparkle, Censored and Miss Moneypenny.