The top class of the Royal Southampton Yacht Club's Winter Series is proving a one-man affair after Mike Garvey pulled off another win at the weekend - his fourth in five races.

It could have been five in five if Garvey, racing X-Parrot, had not missed one race but his domination makes him almost impossible to beat during the remainder of the eight-race series.

In winds of around 12 knots, Garvey and the rest of the Class 1 fleet were on the water for almost three hours, completing two rounds of the same course.

Rear commodore house Stuart Danby competed for the first time in the series with his son, John, helming and managed a well-deserved second place, ahead of Ed Broadway in Hooligan IV by just under two minutes.

In class 2, vice commodore Roger Townsend in Backchat went round in 80 minutes in conditions that perfectly suited the boat, winning the class by just under a minute and a half.

Steve Sault in his Sigma 33 Hooligan came second followed by Brian & Maggie Yeomans in their Nicholson 345 third.

Club class saw the Hunter 707 Big Boys Toys (Andrew Percival) win by a margin of 46 seconds, with the Sigma 33 Iskareen second and Urchin II third just over a minute later.

It shows how close the racing is in this class of such different boats when the winner is a Hunter 707, followed by a Sigma 33 and then an 18-foot Micro Gem! The Multihulls were also set a long course, but in the conditions they romped along and still finished ahead of class 1.

Until the protests from last week are heard, the class leader cannot be determined, but James Stewart in Kokomo made his claim clear with his second clear win of the series.

Peter Ward Jenkins in his Farrier F28 Shakatak was second some three minutes later, followed into third place by Carbon Tiger (Brian Haynes).