IN one of the closest competitions in years and after six races over the weekend, Darren Stower with crewman Michael Winspear won the 16′s main class Hobie Cats Channel Islands Championships in St Aubin’s Bay yesterday afternoon.

It was never an easy competition to win, however.

For after light winds on the Saturday, the 17-boat main fleet had to contend with a blustery Force 5 on Sunday, causing several of the lighter boats to capsize.

By then the competition was between any of the first four contending Hobies and experienced yachtsman and former champion Gordon Burgis seemed to have a chance of edging into a joint lead in the final race until he missed a tack and was overtaken on the testing V-shaped circuit.

With five races to count from six, he was pushed back into third place by former Australia Hobie 16 World team member Stower, who made light work of the stronger winds and deservedly hung on to first place ahead of former junior Andy Hart (22) with crewman Michael Kinross while Burgis and regular crew member Ken Snell were third.

Meanwhile the Hobie 16 youth trophy was won by Matthew Dale and Digby Ibbotson.

At the other end of the age bracket Burgiss and Snell won the master’s competition.

While Lawrence Carter and Leo Schofield sailed extremely well at youth level, the B-fleet was won by Kate Lambert, crewing with Robert Kazmierczak.

Carter and Schofield were second in this category while in third place came James Winchester with crewman Simon Thébault.

In tricky conditions on the Sunday, all crews deserved credit for finishing the course, while the one entry from Guernsey finished midway down the course on a blustery, but typical September afternoon, in St Aubin’s Bay.