Pat and Nick Elmore's Twist and Shout, involved in a minor rescue recently, was at the centre of a more serious incident during last Sunday's wind-lashed fifth race of Crouch Yacht Club's Autumn series.

Twist and Shout's season came to an abrupt end after the first heat, and just seconds after raising her spinnaker for the first downwind leg.

Caught by a sudden gust, she lost control and broached, breaking her mast in two places and causing what could prove to be around £8,000 to £10,000 damage.

Fortunately no one was injured and the crew managed to make the boat seaworthy and return to shore with a bit more than just their pride dented.

With the demise of Twist and Shout, it leaves Ian Hart and Ace of Hearts a clear leader in Class 1 after five races.

Hart won his second successive race and appears the only serious challenger to Gary Shaffer's Secrets for final honours.

Shaffer finished 47 seconds behind in second place but retains the overall lead by five points.

Mike Harrison and Jiminy Cricket also posted his second successive win in Class 2 where only 11 seconds separated the first four boats, while Polaris won both Class 3 and the Stella class.

Maldon Yacht Club's Philip Marshall helped to bring the triangular international series for the Challenge Yves Le Bour trophy to Britain.

Marshall crewed former national champion Peter Wolstenholme, from Kent, to victory after three meetings throughout the summer.

They clinched their success on the Eaud'Heure reservoir, in Belgium, with a third place, which followed their eighth position in Le Havre and first place at Maldon earlier in the summer.

Wolstenholme and Marshall, sailing a flourescent orange Devoti-built Snipe dominated the series and finished with a series-winning 12 points, 29 points ahead of their nearest rivals, a French duo.

John Williams, known affectionately as Strangler, and his crew Julie Hoyle, both of Stone Sailing Club, put together a number of consistent performances to finish a creditable fourth at the Hornet European Championships at Pwllheli, Wales.

Clubmates Neil Connelly and Caroline Barnett were eighth overall.

Caroline Barnett was also in the thick of the action at Stone's Hornet Open meeting, crewing Chris Tiller to victory in a fleet of 22 boats.

They finished 12 points ahead of Fran and Dave Wood.

Graham Bantock, of Chelmsford Model Yacht Club, the reigning world champion, lost his title when he was beaten into second place at the Arial Marblehead World Championship in Spain.

A total of 74 entries from over 12 countries took part in the 12th championships for the most technically advanced of the ISAF classes, which was held on the waters of the Mar Meno, at the High Performance Centre, Infanta Cristina in Los Narejos.

Bantock, sailing one of his new millennium designs, the 'Rok', led the fleet after the first four days of racing and at the halfway stage was 12 points ahead.

But Bantock, from Kelvedon, suffered the misfortune on Thursday to catch a jellyfish on his keel and dropped down the fleet and eventually had to settle for second place overall behind Guillermo Beltri, of Spain.

Results

Crouch YC Autumn Series Race 5: Class 1: 1 Ace of Hearts (I Hart), 2 Secrets (G Shaffer), 3 Mr BoJangles (E Breavington).

Class 2: 1 Jiminy Cricket (M Harrison), 2 Reaction (M Hutchings), 3 Fiddler (K Munnich).

Class 3: 1 Polaris (M Willett, M Nash and R Thompson), 2 Lylie (R Williams), 3 Bonnie Quack (T Southey).

Stella: 1 Polaris, 2 Lylie.

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