JONATHAN House of Colehill helped the Southern Zone Sailing and Windsurfing team to victory in the Eric Twiname Championships at Rutland Water.

House, who will be 14 on Saturday, won the Optimist dinghy section of the championships, with a convincing two firsts and one second place.

Nearly 300 young sailors and windsurfers, representing zone teams from all over the United Kingdom, competed in four dinghy and four windsurfing classes for the coveted Eric Twiname Trophy.

The inclement conditions were extremely testing, with winds of up to force six and frequent squalls causing numerous capsizes throughout the weekend.

This championship was the 17th funded entirely by the Eric Twiname Memorial Trust, which has handed out more than £500,000 to worthy sailing causes since its foundation in 1980.

House, a pupil at Queen Elizabeth School, started sailing three years ago at Poole Yacht Club.

Encouraged by Colin Rainback (now Commodore), he joined the Optimist Zone squad in 2003 and narrowly missed a place in the Intermediate Squad last year.

However, excellent sailing against the country's top Optimist sailors in the selections at Pwllheli and Weymouth gained him a place in the British team competing at the French Nationals in July.

North-Westerly that cooled us all last week caused a fair bit of unintentional swimming on Sunday at the Christchurch Three Clubs regatta.

In a steady force four gusting to a solid five, Christchurch Sailing Club set a challenging course with a long beat, a very short close reach and an equally long and cruel run back to the bottom of the course, which caught out many of the Laser sailors.

A total of 33 boats started, with the Finns of Simon Percival, Tony Lock and Merrick Gill (all Christchurch sailors) right up at the front. These large and powerful dinghies really motor and with a good breeze they are almost impossible to catch.

The first Laser was Luke Ridout (Christchurch) with Alan Dalziel (Highcliffe) next.

All the rest capsized at some time or other and some struggled to finish.

Mudeford's racers were at the back until the handicaps were calculated, when Optimist European squaddie Phil Sparks came first overall by a mere 14 seconds over the Finns.

Alan Bird (Europe, Highcliffe) was well up on handicap as was Ian Dashwood (XCh, Solo).

The second race was not as popular as the first but was won by Sparks. Alan Dalziel was first over the line but second on handicap with Kate Sparks (Radial, Mudeford) third.

Following the success of the Poole YC-organised PYRA training regatta, one of the next significant events on the PYRA calendar is the Parkstone YC/PYRA Spring Regatta over the weekend of May 28 and 29.

As in previous years, this bi-annual event is sponsored by local insurance brokers E Coleman and Co Limited.

Coleman's, with the support of a number of insurance companies, will be providing an entry pack with a difference, including a number of promotional items.

To enter or find out more, please contact Parkstone YC on 01202 743610.