FOUR keelboats took part in the second race of the Helford River Sailing Club Spring Pursuit series, the same boats as the previous week, with exactly the same result, writes Peter Wood.

On a sunny evening with a light easterly breeze, the race began with a spinnaker run from the start, upriver, to the turning mark off Trebah Beach.

The next leg took the boats out of the Helford River to the shag mark off Mawnan Sheer, tacking into the breeze. Jetta seemed to get past Big Purple and Origo approaching the shag mark, by keeping closer to the cliffs, only to find Big Purple able to call "Starboard" at the mark, causing Jetta to tack away.

No sooner had Jetta tacked back on to port tack to round the mark when Origo came up to the mark calling "Starboard" and forcing Jetta to tack away again. By the time Jetta finally got round the shag mark Big Purple and Origo were well on their way across to the Dennis mark, below St Anthony Head.

In the meantime Jacobi was steadily eating into the lead of the smaller boats, and chose the north side of the river, for her final leg back upriver to Trebah beach. Origo almost seemed becalmed in the middle of the river, while Jetta kept tacking her spinnaker close to the South bank, eventually passing Big Purple nearby.

Jacobi got by the three other boats, finishing first by a couple of minutes from Jetta, with Big Purple another four minutes behind in third place.

The finishing order was exactly the same as the previous week, and was also in order of boat length, with Jacobi the largest and Origo the smallest.

Result: 1, Jacobi, (Tony Statham); 2, Jetta, (John Jane); 3, Big Purple, (Garth Weaver); 4, Origo, (Stuart Sawyer).