The Royal Corinthian Yacht Club junior section, the Otters, have been presented with a state-of-the-art Optimist racing dinghy by a thankful Dutch couple.

Lydia and Hans Van Oers, from Holland, whose parents used to sail Dragons at Burnham more than 60 years ago, handed over the one-design dinghy, worth around £4,000, on Monday.

They have presented the boat to the Otters in recognition of the warmth and friendship they were shown when they visited Burnham to order a new boat for themselves, a Dragon class keelboat from the local boatbuilders, Petticrow's.

It is also a way, they say, of forging a link between Burnham and their family.

Nigel Musto, who coaches the top group of young sailors at the club, will ensure that the boat is used to allow the youngsters to compete at the very highest level when perhaps their own finances might not have allowed.

The Otters have one of the biggest youth sailing fleets in the country with 75 Optimists and 40 Cadets.

The Oers new Dragon is to be called Kortenaer, so the Optimist will be called Kortenaer Two.

Ernie Breavington and Mr BoJangles, put in a late bid to retain the Crouch Yacht Club's Hydd Gwynn Trophy on Sunday by winning the last of the three-race series, but it still was not enough to catch either Jiminy Cricket (Mike Harrison) or Holographic (Len Baker).

Bar a disaster, Harrison already had the series wrapped up by winning the first two races, and his second place on Sunday gave him overall victory with three points, three ahead of Holographic, with Mr BoJangles on nine.

At the presentation ceremony afterwards, the Crouch presented a cheque for £1,471 to the British Heart Foundation, the chosen charity for the club's 1999-2000 fund-raising effort. The final total was the most ever raised by the club.

Maldon Yacht Club's Alan Hoy leads a contingent of Snipe crews from the club for the French national championship in Le Havre over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend.

Ten countries will be represented at the event, including a team from the United States.

Maldon will again be organising the Snipe South-Eastern championships, this time in July, and the club are also running the Yves Le Bour Challenge, the first time they have bee honoured with the event.

Stone Sailing Club will host the Snipe nationals in August, with teams from all over Europe, and as far as Canada.

Under the guidance of club officer Helen Kimber, a party of Stone youngsters will be flying out to Menorca in July to visit Club Maritimo de Mahon, who sent a group of their young sailors for an exchange visit to the Blackwater last summer.

Iain Marshall (Snipe), crewed by Graham Hoy, instead of brother Richard, who will not be able to sail, much this season because of university studies, won the first race in one of Maldon Yacht Club's most prestigious trophies, the Sunday points series.

The Snipe feet revelled in the light breeze, taking the first three places, all of which were crewed by cadets, which is encouraging news for the club's youth policy.

Bruce Clark, in his International Canoe, had an eventful day, progressively working his way up to the front and then falling back.

Results

Crouch YC Hydd Gwynn Trophy - Race 3: 1 Mr BoJangles (Breavington), 2 Jiminy Cricket (M Harrison), 3 Cheetah of Burnham (H Croker).

Overall: 1 Jiminy Cricket 3 points, 2 Holographic (L Baker 6 points), 3 Mr BoJangles nine points.

RCYC/RBYC Sunday Dragons: Quicksilve (R Campbell). Etchells: Her Outdoors (R Melville). Squibs: Nenuphar (A Carley).

Maldon YC Sunday Points series - Race 1: 1 I Marshall & G Hoy (Snipe), 2 I & K Varney (Snipe), 3 A & J Hoy (Snipe).

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