THIS is the time of year when local sailors do their bit for the community and on Sunday charity races were organised at both Poole and Lymington.

The Poole Winter Series held two pursuit races with handicaps altered to take in to consideration performance in the series so far.

Making my way to the boat on Sunday morning the car dashboard display said one degree centigrade outside, this was endorsed by the covering of frost on deck.

But the early morning sunshine held out for the race and the wind built for those charitable enough to turn up for the staggered start.

For others, the Parkstone Cruiser Racing prize giving and Poole YC's annual dinner, the night before might have had some effect on their attendance and performance.

A running start at 10.30am out in the bay saw Nick Treble's MG27 Athene, with the ignominious pleasure of being deemed slowest boat, leading the pack to BP Wytch Farm mark.

Next off were the J24s with Chris Blackburn's MG27 Mistress leading a larger pack six minutes behind, with Impalas, Celerity and Uproar, following closely reflecting their early season's success.

There was a reasonable turnout in Class One with Nick Fullager's Fixation and Mike Riley's Jammin having to wait about 20 minutes to join the action.

Finding the wind, avoiding the holes and allowing for the tide (the highest spring this year) proved the challenge of the morning.

With one hour to go, Keith Lovett's new Bavarian Match, Firestarter, had pushed to the lead with the Js of Jeepers and Jumanji and Mistress clearly in the lead of their fleets.

However unfavourable wind shifts between MDL Cobbs Quay and East Hook saw Js Easy Tiger and Zaphod take the lead with Steve Davis and Kate Havill's Uproar steaming through in their own private wind.

Nearing the 1pm finish time the Parkstone start boat Ron Cox and the rib took up station close to Ancaster.

Firestarter held on to its lead to the line, Andy Macgregor's Panache took top Class One position, Uproar won Class Two and Phil Owen's Zaphod was the best of the J24s.

There were problems for the in-harbour fleet too, if I had one complaint about pursuit races it is the difficulty in delaying pre-published start times.

Who can blame an race officer for going ahead with a sequence even if there is little or no wind.

For the early starters though lack of wind in those early stages makes their task impossible.

Such was the case off the Poole YC line on Sunday when the almost no breeze at 11am was replaced at 17 minutes past by a light southerly at the southern end.

Those that started then, including myself, had an immediate advantage against the ebbing tide.

My Skullduggery soon took the front spot and stayed there till the gun. Ian Standbridge did his best to catch up in his Class One boat Rsum, while Presto, John Water's Sonata, was best Class Two boat.

In Class Three, Sam Gill's Splinter 'Elfin' was ahead at the finish gun, while Geoff Gwinnett had made enough ground to overtake the leading R19s for honours with his Rhythm & Blues. But really it was the charities themselves that won, Poole YC's Commodore's Charity being The Julia Perks Foundation, while Parkstone Yacht Club support The Harbour Challenge, which gives youngsters from Turlin Moor Middle School the opportunity to learn to sail, and Macmillan Nurses.

l The Lymington Town Annual Charity Pursuit Race in aid of Children in Need and Oakhaven Hospice took place on Sunday too.

The day dawned brilliantly but with not a breath of wind.

The 30 or so expected competitors began to find other things to do as there seemed little hope of the race taking place.

Race officer Joe Blachford first gave a 30 minute postponement as the wind doubled from half to one knot but eventually had to admit the race could not go ahead.

Instead a one start handicap race was organised and 10 dinghies made the start line.

As the starting sequence began the wind again faded leaving all but the two fast fleet boats struggling to get to the line. At the gun Red Kite sailed by Ian Blundell and Peter Barker got swept the wrong side of Baverstock and retired to take a cruise towards Keyhaven.

Meanwhile Peter Conway and Ginny Harvey in Hairy Biscuit led around the windward mark heading the fast boats. Leading the medium fleet the 420s of Robbie Claridge and Robyn Stock were not far behind.

In a fitful and fluky wind on the two downwind legs the Blazes of Paul Taylor and David Angwin visitors from Burghfield Sailing Club made up for their poor start and slipped through to second and third behind Claridge.

Nearing the finish Con-way missed the finishing mark and sailed another lap letting Nigel Walbank's RS700 sail through to win the trophy. Charities benefiting are BBC Children in Need Appeal and Oakhaven Hospice.

Results: Fast handicap: 1 Looney (RS700),Nigel Walbank, 2 Hairy Biscuit (Int 14), Peter Conway and Ginny Harvey. Medium handicap: 1 Tsunami (420) Robbie Claridge and Jas Husband, 2 Blaze 654 Paul Taylor, 3 Red Devil (Stratos) Mike Beggs and Nick Fagan.