THE end of the season appears to be approaching fast. The last race of the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club's Third Point Series took place on Friday in a wind that showed all the signs of planning to cease.

The race officer sent the safety RIBs round most of Carrick Roads and out into the bay to find where the most of the breeze was, but in the end, with the planned shipping movements, stayed in the south of the Roads.

In A class, the foul tide affected most of the yachts badly. However, Peter Knight in Pink Gin (with an unusually poor start), tacked away to the St. Mawes Castle shore and recovered well. With the breeze from the land fighting with the sea breeze, the race was clearly spilt with a hole between the two breezes.

Turning at the Black Rock buoy back up the Roads, many yachts could barely stem the tide leading to one or two retiring. Some persisted, noticing that the land breeze was winning. It reached Pink Gin first and she sailed off to Trefusis, chased by Martin Eddy in his new yacht Bluenose. These two yachts managed the breeze again up to the club to cross the finish line ahead of the Damien and Christine Bloor's Artful and Per Elisa (Tregear/Pullen).

The E Class (PY) yachts clearly suffered the same effects from the wind and the fleet became widely separated around the course. A revitalized Dina-Mite (Alexander Kemp) led for most of the race managing to find the right wind round most of the course. Amneris, Jemelda and Asti made progress with each employing different tacks to find the wind, but eventually crossing the line in that order.

Two Sunbeam yachts turned out, helmed by different crews as various crews swapped yachts. Caprice led Whimsey round most of the course and took the line honour. The SMOD class joined the swapping and clearly had an effect on the reputation of the yachts rather than the helms. Spinaway led Kelpie and Robin Hood to the line at certain points stemming the tide better than the bigger yachts.

The Sportsboats, on the same course as the IRC yachts, had similar problems as David Cunliffe in Blue and Matt Trebilcock in Sworded Fish match raced for the whole race. Their race started again after Black Rock and by carefully covering each tack of Sworded Fish, Blue reached the finish with enough time to take first on handicap and win the third Points Series overall from Sworded Fish and Richard Beaman's Cardinal Puff.

Although four multihulls started, the lack of breeze led to two retirements. David Healy in Flying Circus and Colin Gladwell in Alderney Race found some breeze closer to the land and made good use of what was there. Flying Circus built a good lead around the course and took line honours. On corrected time, the winner was Alderney Race.

After supper at the club, the series prizegiving went ahead with the vice- commodore making the presentations.

Results by Class for September 7 - Race six A class: 1, Artful (D and C Bloor); 2, Pink Gin (Peter Knight); 3, Bluenose (Martin Eddy).

D class: 1, Spinaway (Richard Brown); 2, Kelpie (Jeremy and Rachel Dunn); 3, Robin Hood (David and Emma Mantle).

E class: 1, Dina-Mite (Alexander Kemp); 2, Amneris (Peter Hackett); 3, Asti (Barrie Lukey) F class: 1, Blue (T and D Cunliffe); 2, Sworded Fish (Matthew Trebilcock) J class: 1, Soma III (Walter Amos); 2, Jitterbug (John Hicks) M class: 1, Alderney Race (Colin Gladwell); 2, Flying Circus (David Healy) V class: 1, Caprice (Mr and Mrs L Trenoweth); 2, Whimsey (C Perkins) RCYC Third Points Series - Results by Class for Series A class: 1, Artful (D and C Bloor); 2, Per Elisa (Paul Pullen and Robbie Tregear); 3 Macavity (Dr John Murrell) D class: 1, Robin Hood (David and Emma Mantle); 2, Spinaway (Richard Brown); 3, Kelpie (Jeremy and Rachel Dunn) E class: 1, Asti (Barrie Lukey); 2, Popincoota (Jane Goddard and Alan Grose); 3, Dina-Mite (Alexander Kemp) F class: 1, Blue, (T and D Cunliffe); 2, Sworded Fish (Matthew Trebilcock); 3, Cardinal Puff (Richard Beaman) J class: 1, Soma III (Walter Amos); 2, Jiggy With It (Truro College Craig Brown); 3, Jitterbug (John Hicks) M class: 1, Alderney Race (Colin Gladwell); 2, Flying Circus (David Healy); 3, Crackerjack (Mike Webb) Q class: 1, Silver Harmony (Lyulph Hesling); 2, Deep Blue (Andrew Ridyard) V class: 1, Caprice (Mr and Mrs L Trenoweth); 2, Pixy (Lester Smith); 3, Whimsey (C Perkins)