One of the lowest tides of the year, combined with gales that ravaged the northern part of Britain during the week, added up to a disappointing start to the Crouch Yacht Club's Red Insurance Nutcracker Trophy meeting on Sunday.

The start of the first of three races had to be postponed for an hour and ten minutes before any of the yachts berthed in Burnham Yacht Harbour had enough water to get out into the River Crouch.

Even then, there still was not enough water to float the big boats and five of the entries were forced to pull out of the race altogether, including Alan Bartlett's Inn Spirit, who was looking forward to completing an end of season 'double' after winning the club's Autumn Trophy a fortnight ago.

In the end, 14 yachts got to the start line for a drastically shortened course, which included mostly off-wind sailing.

That seemed to suit the Cork 1720's in Class 1, Holo Graphic (Len Baker) and Hare Trigger (Alex Willard), who outpaced Ernie Breavington's Mr BoJangles, the autumn series Class 2 winner being helmed again by Paul Manning.

Holo Graphic took first place, with Hare Trigger second and Mr BoJangles third.

Frank Curtis's Crazy Horse, who missed the autumn series, scored a 90-second victory over Colomen, the glass fibre Folkboat of Jochem Badaam, with Jiminy Cricket (Mike Harrison) third.

In the Stella class, Mick Willett and Polaris led home Rangitira (Noel Stanbury) and Rollicker (Neil Pitman) and looks in a good position to complete a possible Autumn Trophy and Nutcracker Trophy double.

Results

Crouch Yacht Club Red Insurance Nutcracker Trophy - Class 1: 1 Holo Graphic (l Baker), 2 Hare Trigger (A Willard), 3 Mr BoJangles (E Breavington). Class 2: 1 Crazy Horse (F Curtis), 2 Colomen (J Badaam), 3 Jiminy Cricket (M Harrison). Stella: 1 Polaris (M Willett), 2 Rangitira (N Stanbury), 3 Rollicker (N Pitman).

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.