Competitors in the annual Falmouth Working Boat “World” Championships, hosted by St Mawes Sailing Club, enjoyed glorious weather for three consecutive days at the weekend.

Seventeen boats – seven of which are centenarians - took part in B Class, and five in a revitalised C Class for the smaller boats.

The night before the event began it was decided to hold three of the five races on the first day: officially because of a very light wind forecast on the afternoon of the second day but the fact that this new schedule avoided any clash with another “world” sporting event - the England football team’s World Cup quarter final – was no bad thing.

In B Class, the first day brought a dominating performance by John Peters and Rita who won two races and was second in the other.

Defending champion Grace, this time with Stephen Hills at the helm, started with a mediocre sixth place, but then had a first and a second, the latter just eight seconds behind Rita on corrected time.

So going in to the second day, Rita had a slight advantage, but she slumped to eighth place in the fourth race which was won by Grace in emphatic style to level the overall score.

In the final race, it looked to be all over for Grace when, by her own standards, she had a poor start while Rita got away at the front of the fleet.

Victory won the race and with it the Ron Medlyn trophy – named after the event’s late race officer – while Rita was second and Grace, which had picked off the places in impressive style, third.

So Rita became the first boat to win the championships three times with Grace just an agonising point behind, Victory third, and Abigail Rose – helmed by Sam Heard whose father and grandfather built all the GRP boats in the fleet – fourth.

In C Class the writing was on the wall when Simon Berryman in Zilpha won all three races on the first day. He clinched the Championships with a third in race four while Leila – helmed by Adam Bird, the chairman of the Championships organising committee – had four seconds before winning the final race to secure second place overall.

This year is the 40th anniversary of the formation of the Falmouth Working Boat Association and so the feelgood factor provided by such wonderful weather somehow seemed entirely appropriate.