The Crouch Yacht Club have broken the bank to help the British Heart Foundation.

At this Sunday's prize-giving for the first racing series of 2000, the Hydd Gwynn Trophy, the Crouch commodore Frank Curtis will hand over a cheque for around £1,500 to representatives of the foundation - the largest amount the club have raised for such a project.

Last year the Crouch raised £800 for their chosen charity, the McMillan Trust.

Curtis said: ''Our aim was to top £1,000 this year, so we are absolutely delighted to have raised this amount.''

The Crouch run a number of fund-raising events during the financial year, including raffles and auctions and major club functions.

Meanwhile, on the water, Mike Harrison and his Impala, Jiminy Cricket, have already sewn up the Hydd Gwynn series with one race to go.

Jiminy Cricket beat Len Baker s Cork 1720, Holographic, by five seconds on corrected time in breezy conditions on Sunday to make it two wins out of two.

Mr Bojangles (Ernie Breavington) was third and with the previous week's top-three finishers, Crazy Horse (Frank Curtis) and Xcavator (Rupert and Lizzie Brown) out of the running, it leaves Harrison in an unassailable position going into Sunday's final race.

Crazy Horse was fourth and Xcavator failed to reach the start line after getting her propeller snagged up with rope.

Maldon Yacht Club's Andy and James Denniss, who have started the new season in cracking form, showed their versatility with victories in contrasting conditions at the weekend.

In light winds on Saturday, they won their third of five races to date in the Saturday Scratch series.

Then, on Sunday, with a cold north wind gusting to Force 4-5, they avoided all the mishaps to score their second success in the second of the Sunday Scratch series.

With numerous capsizes, the club's escort boat was kept busy and among several incidents, the Snipe of Steve Ski and Roger Eaves suffered a broken mast.

Sunday also saw the first cadet training day on the marine lake on Maldon Promenade.

Using three oppies, eight youngsters enjoyed supervised training in safe waters, thanks to Maldon District Council.

Results

Crouch YC Hydd Gwynn Trophy - Race 2: 1 Jiminy Cricket (M Harrison), 2 Holographic (L Baker), 3 Mr BoJangles (E Breavington).

Maldon YC SaturdaY Scratch, Race 5: 1 A & J Denniss (420), 2 I Wright (Laser), 3 P Grundy (Laser).

Sunday Scratch, Race 2: 1 A & J Denniss, 2 M Hedgecock (Laser), 3 I Wright (Laser).

RCYC/RBYC Saturday Dragons: Quicksilver (R Campbell). Squibs: Perfection (W Daley). Sunday Dragons: Quicksilver.

RCYC Cadet Spring Series - Race 1, A fleet: Jiminy Cricket (J Elphinstone). B fleet: As If (A Shanahan.) Race 2, A fleet: Jiminy Cricket. B fleet: As If.

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