Rutland Sailing Club has hosted a University Keelboat League event - the third in the series of six racing weekends set to take place as a part of the tournament.

Seven university teams and one Rutland team were expected to race over the weekend, but illness in the Rutland team forced them to withdraw, leaving seven university teams to compete for the win and Rutland's team to miss out on the home advantage.

In this unique event, four RS21 keelboats are on the water, with the seven teams rotating in and out of the boats.

Each race is approximately 15 minutes in length and, this weekend, there were a total of 28 races sailed. Every team sailed in 16 races and sailed against each of the other teams between eight and nine times over the course of the event.

The racing on Saturday was somewhat curtailed by very light winds, meaning that only seven races were sailed. The leading team on Saturday was Portsmouth Purple with four wins followed, by Solent Irish in second place with three wins.

This left a lot of work for the sailors and organised of the event, who hoped to make up for lost races on Sunday.

Sunday was forecast to give much more wind and, after an early light fog, it cleared just before the scheduled start to give a great breeze.

This allowed the race team to run a record 21 races in a day on Sunday giving a total of 28 races over the whole weekend and 16 for each team.

The two leading teams started where they finished off on Saturday, with more competitive racing on the Sunday. 

One the second and final day of racing, Solent Irish powered ahead of the fleet winning several races in a row, overtaking Portsmouth Blue in the tables.

Solent Black was fast catching Portsmouth Purple who held on by a whisker – just 1 point to hold off Solent Black in the end.

Weekend racing rounded off with the following results:

1. Solent Irish (58 points)
2. Portsmouth Purple (50 points) 
3. Solent Black (49 points)

Competitors rounded off the weekend "exhausted but very happy with such great racing in perfect conditions," said organisers.

There are six events around the country, Rutland being the third held so far.

These teams will go forward to University Keelboat Sailing Finals to be held at Rutland on 25-27 May, when there are at least 12 teams expected to compete based on the top teams over the six events.