The first two races of POW Week – the International 14 national championship – have produced some extremely close sailing.

Saturday saw the fleet sailing in a Force 2-3 in Falmouth bay. A pack of five boats managed to move a away from the rest of the fleet after the first beat. Places changed frequently and there were three different leaders, but true to form Paul Vine managed to get into first place by the end of the race. Archie Massey did well in his first POW week to come second.

Race 2 on Monday was delayed after the committee boat sailed into the harbour and was immersed in fog. The fleet was sent back to Mylor with some entertaining twin-wire downwind sailing in 100m visibility. A race was started about an hour late in Carrick Roads when the fog had cleared. The sun was out and it was blowing Force 2-3 again from the south. The conditions were extremely challenging and boats gained on different sides of the course as the wind gradually shifted to the right. Paul Vine and Dave Dobrijevic led until the last 200m when Fred Eaton and John Vinzce from Canada managed to overtake having been pushed to the right of the course by Vine. The hydrofoil rudders which have appeared in all shapes and sizes have not proved dramatically faster and certainly don’t cover mistakes. Second placed

The Prince of Wales Cup race is today (Tuesday) and the forecast is for a Force 5-6.

Results (after two races)

1st 1444 Paul Vine, Dave Dobrijevic

2nd 1467 Pete Dann, Dominic Stanislaus

3rd 1430 Colin Smith, Peter Helm