SPINNAKER Sailing Club’s Rhiannon Flack took the honours at the Parkstone Yacht Club Topper Open.

The 53 Topper sailors taking part were blessed with near perfect conditions – a far cry from last year’s event, which was cancelled due to gale-force winds.

Matt Stephens from Burghfield and Chris Cowan from Portchester opened up a big gap in race one, with William Birch-Tomlinson from Hayling Island being the nearest challenger.

Race Two saw a similar result but this time, but this time it was Ringwood’s Flack tussling with Stephens and Cowan for the lead, with the latter just getting his nose in front to be followed home by Flack and Stephens.

Even though the pin end was favoured, the majority of the fleet went for a committee boat end start in race three and most were shy of the line.

Flack, however, made a clean start and led the fleet well despite being chased hard by Niall Houston from Hayling Island and Poole Yacht Club’s Ed Gillespie.

That rasult set up a grandstand finish, with just three points splitting the top five going into the final race.

Nathanial Gordon from Parkstone started from the pin end in race four, enabling him to build an unbeatable lead to claim the spoils, but it was Flack who ended the day on top of the leader board.

Topper Open: 1 Rhiannon Flack, 2 Chris Cowan, 3 Niall Houston.

Top Poole YC helm: Ed Gillespie.

Top Parkstone YC helm: Nathaniel Gordon.

• Poole Yacht Club’s annual regatta was hit by the wind, meaning several of the junior dinghy fleets were left on the shoreline.

The Cruiser ‘Twilight’ pursuit race took place in moderating conditions on Saturday evening, however, and a full dinghy race programme on Sunday was held with extra races to make up for the loss from day before.

With 99 entrants in 12 fleets, sailing on three courses, a great day’s sailing was enjoyed with winds still a little brisk but, overall, it was a successful event in testing conditions.

Results, Poole YC annual regatta, Osprey: Michael Atkinson/Stuart Maunder.

Fast Handicap: James Mitchell (Laser Vortex).

Laser: Ed Gillespie.

420: Danielle Thomas/Amy Sparks.

GP14: Colin Rainback/Andrew Burge.

YW Dayboat: Peter/Andrew Hewitt.

Medium Handicap: Kate Devereux (Laser4.7).

Mirror: Midge Watkins/Harriet Watkins.

Topper: Nathaniel Gordon.

Optimist: Fern Duesbury.

Junior Optimist: James Foster.

Junior Mirror: Katie Hattersley/Sky Streeter.

Overall winner: Frankie the Rhino (Owain Peters).