THREE Walton and Frinton Yacht Club boats ventured out for the start of the 2016 Haven Series.

Blue Beeste, owned by Charles Penfold and Martin Jenkins, had won the series overall and been class one champion for the last three years and was hoping to defend her titles.

Spirit of Defiance (SOD), owned by Geoff Parker's syndicate, and Zero Gravitas, belonging to the Brooke family, have high hopes of winning class two and challenging for the overall title.

Saturday gave the fleet a tough test for the first race of the season, with winds in excess of 20 knots.

Sail choice was crucial and the challenging conditions meant any mistakes were going to be costly.

Class two was first away.

SOD had a poor start and was playing catch-up for the whole race, but recovered well to get second place in class and sixth overall.

Zero Gravitas did well in the conditions and managed third in class and seventh overall.

The class one boats started 15 minutes after the slower boats.

Blue Beeste had a perfect start and led the faster boats round the course, soon overtaking the stragglers in the slow fleet.

She sailed a good race and was able to open the season with the perfect start of first in class and overall.

Sunday's racing was very different.

The race office had to delay the start for an hour in order to wait for sufficient breeze to race.

Eventually the breeze settled in enough to allow a race to be run.

However, the choice of courses was limited by the conditions.

A simple triangle course was set and class two started with SOD improving on her previous day's start and getting into a strong position in class.

The course was a pretty processional one, with little place changing.

SOD managed to win her class and finish fourth overall, while Zero Gravitas again sailed solidly to finish third in class and seventh overall.

Class one started after the slower boats.

This time Blue Beeste had a mediocre start and had to follow her main opponent, the J97 Ickle Jura, up the first beat.

Despite getting through the J97 at the first mark, Blue Beeste had no answer to the reaching speed of the J's asymmetric spinnaker and had to settle for second in class and overall.

With two races gone, the club boats are well placed.

Blue Beeste is joint leader in class one and overall.

SOD is leading class two, laying sixth overall, and Zero Graitas is laying third in class and ninth overall.