David Geaves, of the Royal Burnham Yacht Club, finally got his new Castro 38, Fiona VIII, going well and he dominated Woolwich Ramsgate Week.

Geaves capped a memorable week, in which he won both the midweek and full week Class 1 titles by lifting the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Cup on Friday in a fleet of some 95 yachts.

Previously, Geaves won the QEC in his J35, Fiona VII.

The Royal Temple Yacht Club boat Ghost Train (David Elderfield) was pushed into third place by Burnham Sailing Club's Martin Corrie, in Mickey Mouse of Beaulieu.

Medway yachts, however, took revenge in Saturday's Ramsgate Gold Cup, filling the first three places overall.

Kit Hobday and Independent Bear, was second in Class 1, with Fiona VIII third for the second successive year.

Ian Langston (Harmony) won Class 3, ahead of Mr Bojangles and Secrets (G Schaffer), Cheetah of Burnham was second in Class 4 and Calypso third in Class 5.

Ernie Breavington, of the Crouch Yacht Club, in Mr BoJangles, won both the midweek and full week Class 3 titles.

He also finished fifth overall in the midweek series and sixth overall in the full week series.

Mickey Mouse was third in Class 3, thanks to a class victory on the final day of the series.

Gerry Ledger, in Hullabaloo and Harry Croker (Cheetah of Burnham) were third and fourth respectively in Class 4 and Malcolm Hutchins in his Limbo, Calypso, took third place in Class 5.

Overall, it was a tremendous week for the Crouch Yacht Club, even though, after dominating the early stages of the week, they missed out on the team trophy to Royal Temple YC III by seven points.

Their second team was fifth overall and their third team eighth, thus underlining the enormous strength in depth at the club.

The much-heralded feeder race to Burnham Week, the Duke of York Trophy from Ramsgate to Burnham, failed to capture the imagination and only 10 of the 100 Woolwich Ramsgate Week entries took part.

And four of those boats failed to finish the 50-mile race within the stipulated time limit. leaving only six finishers.

The race also failed to attract yachts from the Medway and only two Kent boats, the overall winner, Paul Woodward and Excalibur of Ramsgate (RTYC) and Lift and Shift, competed in the race, thus enabling them to take part in at least some of Burnham Week, which starts tomorrow.

The inability to attract more Medway yachts is particularly disappointing for Burnham Week, especially considering the number of yachts from the Crouch, Blackwater and Harwich clubs who entered Ramsgate Week.

In fact, up until the early part of this week, no Haven Port yachts had entered the Burnham regatta, entries for which were still substantially short of the 295 of last year.

Fiona VIII was runner-up in the Duke of York Trophy, with Shoot The Bar third.

Philip Marshall, of Maldon Yacht Club, crewed by Duncan Reed, finished 16th overall out of an entry of 29 at the Snipe Junior World Championships in Spain last week.

Results: Burnham SC Wednesday Evening series, Class 1: Twist & Shout (P & N Elmore). Class 2: Xandra (D Willshire). Class 3: Wee Namara (M Figg). Squib: Trophoblast (C Goodfellow).

RBYC Cadet Week -Dinghy Handicap Class A: 1 P Tolhurst & J Collins (420, 2 J Berney & A Mellish (Laser 2), 3 D & K Waterfield (Buzz).

Class B: 1 M Miller (Laser Radial), 2 P Chenevix-Trench (Topper), 3 L Fitzgerald (Topper). Scows: Charlie (G Fleming & V Smith), 2 Flickers (K Hall & A-M Davies), 3 Ariadne (A Horner, R Beck & R Hooper. Optimists: No 4353 (J Gibson), 2 No 353 (S Paul).

Marconi SC Summer Points series, Race 17 - Solo: J Salmon, 2 R Smith, 3 G Josey, 4 S Monks, 5 P Collis, 6 I Rawley. Handicap: 1 R Smedley, 2 M Boreham, 3 L Hurrell, 4 L Gill. Dart 15: 1 K Kirby, 2 M Glynn . Medium Cats: 1 P Metcalfe, 2 C Harrison, 3 B Grimshaw. Fast Cats: 1 B Piggott, 2 P

Longhurst. Race 18 - Solo: 1 R Smith, 2 S Monks, 3 J Salmon, 4 G Josey, 5 M Hall. Handicap: 1 P Williams, 2 L Hurrell, 3 L Gill. Dart 15: 1 K Kirby, 2 M Glynn. Medium Cats: 1 P Metcalfe, 2 C Harrison. Fast Cats: 1 B Piggott, 2 P Longhurst.

Hornet National Championships (Tenby, South Wales) - R Jelley & C Barnett (Stone SC), 5 Strangler (J Williams) & J Hoyle (Stone SC).

BJRC Blackwater Cup - 1 Facto 8 (G Reynolds, Balckwater SC), 2 Quiet Air (T Mills MLSC), 3 Non-Sequitur (F Newham, Bradwell Quay YC).

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