HAMPSHIRE'S Olympic sailors put in a stunning performance at the Spa Olympic classes regatta last week winning six medals in 11 classes and taking the Hein de Goederen award for the highest scoring nation in the competition.

The switch from Finn to Star proved almost seamless for Olympic gold medallist Iain Percy who, with Steve Mitchell, walked away with a top place in their first ISAF grade one championship, despite competing in their new class for just six months.

"This is our first regatta win in the Star, we started six months ago with a sixth, then we finished fourth, then third and finally second, so if we didn't win this one our cycle would have been ruined," said Percy, who spent the winter training in Florida.

"The problem now is what will happen next, I just hope we don't yo-yo back!"

Their British colleagues in the Star class, Olympic 49er medallist Ian Barker and Ed Peel, finished 14th and broke a £5,000 mast.

In the Finn class, Ben Ainslie and Andrew Simpson were edged into fourth and sixth places after some closely fought racing.

On the last day, in windy conditions Ainslie struggled and capsized a couple of times which resulted in a 25th-place finish and fighting for third place overall.

He was beaten to the bronze medal on count back, leaving him in fourth place while Simpson finished third in the last race of the regatta to put him in sixth place overall.

Team GBR sailor Chris Draper, sailing with Olympic silver medallist, Simon Hiscocks, sailed consistently to finish in the bronze medal position in the 49er class.

There were three other British pairing in the top ten with Alister Richardson and Peter Greenhalgh in seventh, Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith eighth and Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes tenth.

RYA Olympic manager Stephen Park commented: "I am very proud that we won the Hein de Goederen Trophy, which I think is a testament to the strength across the classes that we seem to be developing.

"Hopefully the sailors will be able to carry on their performance during the season."