let alone raced, the J24 fleet has finally taken to water for their first race of the 1994 season and the second in the W.P. Cook series.

Saturday's weather could not have been better for racing as five boats made the starting line in sunny conditions with a variable five to seven knot breezes out of the south-west.

In the first race of the day, all the boats opted for a starboard start with Anarchy , helmed by Rob Gibson, taking an early lead. The boats were fairly evenly distributed across the course as they searched for a breeze in light conditions.

At the first windward rounding, Anarchy had retained her lead, followed by Michael Emery's Thunda , Bernie Fretworst's Erin , Kate Williams in Petit Papillon and Tim Miller sailing Tempest for John Musson.

The first leeward leg saw no change of position but Papillon closed the gap on Erin to the point where they were bow to transom at the leeward mark. Papillon completed a full turn to round the mark and set off in pursuit of Erin on the second weather leg.

Anarchy , Erin and Thunda took the lifted tack to the right while Papillon chose to take an early knock to the left to get into stronger breeze just left of the centre of the course. When the boats next crossed, Papillon had taken first Erin and then Thunda at the top of the windward leg.

While Papillon closed slowly on the final windward leg, Anarchy 's lead was unsurmountable, taking first place comfortably, followed by Papillon , Thunda , Erin and Tempest .

In the second race, Thunda and Papillon chose to port tack the start, crossing Anarchy , Erin and Tempest before cutting back for the breeze line to the left.

Again the rest of the fleet went right on the lift in lighter air. Papillon , staying to the left of centre in the strongest breeze, found a huge lift coming off the Canberra , moored in the sound, and rode it up to the windward layline to establish a healthy lead.

The positions did not change on the leeward leg as Papillon , staying in the breeze line on the left side, led Thunda , Anarchy , Erin and Tempest to the downwind mark. Papillon repeated the previous windward leg, taking the knock to the breeze line left of centre and then riding it to the left at the top of the course.

Thunda dug deep into the left, looking to bang the corner and single tack the leg. The rest of the fleet dug deep to the right on the light air lift, intent on the same thing. By the second windward mark, Papillon had consolidated her lead, round the mark unmolested and launched her chute only to find it had been holed in the previous takedown.

Undaunted, she returned to the left hand side that continued to pay off and retained her lead to the second leeward mark as the positions remained unchanged.

The final windward leg saw a repeat of the previous two with Thunda digging even deeper to the left while Anarchy and Erin went deeper to the right.

Papillon rounded the windward mark with a huge lead and launched her now patched chute for the long ride downhill. Meanwhile, Anarchy had closed on Thunda , reached in from the right and gibed round to park squarely in Thunda's air.

A sportsman-like debate on the merits of this maneuver ensued before Anarchy gibed out and cleared Thunda 's air. The move did not, however, put Anarchy into the left side breeze line and by the finish she had overtaken Thunda by a healthy margin.

The final positions for the second race were Papillon first by better than two minutes, followed by Anarchy , Thunda and Erin . Tempest had retired.