The Dorothy Winfrey Cup is a one-off race held each year at the Helford River Sailing Club on the Wednesday before the cross Channel race to L'Aber W'rach in Brittany, writes Peter Wood.

There were eight starters, with Hatty and Kudu getting away ten minutes ahead of the six quicker boats. Skippers had to decide whether to use their number one foresail, and risk being overpowered, or to choose the smaller number two foresail, and risk being underpowered if the wind eased.

Big Purple was first to the windward mark off Trebah Beach closely followed by Jacobi, Gotcha and Jabadeo. A good breeze from the WSW filled the spinnakers, as the fleet headed down the river towards the Dennis Mark, against the incoming tide.

The run out to Rosemullion was lively and the yachts then came reaching back in to the coast at Porthallow. The spinnaker run back out to Eastern saw Kudu's crew struggling to overcome spinnaker problems and the main fleet caught up with Hatty.

Jabadeo was going well and was second to round the Eastern Mark after Jacobi, with Big Purple third.

Jetta and Gotcha were racing almost side by side, with Jetta just managing to get past and round the mark first. However, Gotcha's crew had changed their foresail for their number one, and she slowly pulled past Jetta on the long beat back into the River.

Big Purple was sailing well on the long beat, as usual, and after a short triangular section in the river crossed the line second after Jacobi, but close enough to win the Dorothy Winfrey Cup on corrected time.

Race results (IRC): 1, Big Purple (Garth Weaver); 2, Jacobi (Tony Statham); 3, Jabadeo (Wally Royall); 4, Gotcha (Stuart Sawyer); 5, Jetta (Tom Smith); 6, Jinjy (Lynda Filmer).

Racing under the PY handicap only were 7, Kudu (Terry Pascoe); 8, Hatty (John Hughes).