Breeze at last

The JJ Giltinan competitors finally got some good breeze for racing in Sydney

Michael Coxon and his Casio Seapathfinder team of Aaron Links and Nathan Ellis have taken a narrow lead in the Ssangyong JJ Giltinan International Championship with an exciting victory in race six on Sydney Harbour on Saturday.

Casio defeated John Harris' Rag & Famish Hotel by 53 seconds with New Zealand's Phil Airey a further 31 seconds back in third place in CT Sailbattens in one of the most spectacular races seen on the harbour for some time.

With the final race to be sailed tomorrow (Sunday) Casio on 15 points holds a one point lead over Asko Appliances (Hugh Stodart) on 16, Rag & Famish 17 and Club Marine 18.

Finally, after days of light flukey breezes, a 20+ knots nor-easter faced the 31 teams for race six of the championship.

Pegasus Racing, Casio and CT Sailbattens were best from the start with Asko and Rag & Famish in hot pursuit.

Casio and Pegasus staged a great battle upwind with Casio taking the honours at the Beashel Buoy windward mark by just a few seconds.

The pair fairly took off under spennakers but Casio won out totally when her crew gybed onto starboard hand and Pegasus capsized while trying to gybe on to starboard also to avoid the collision.

The speed of the skiffs was sensational as they raced under spinnaker along Shark Island to the wing mark.

Casio now had a clear break over CT Sailbattens, Rag & Famish and Ssangyong Yandoo as the skiffs headed back upwind.

The positions remained pretty much unchanged over the second lap of the course but the racing was anything but stable.

The leaders were flying on the long spinnaker run back down harbour with plenty of air between hull and water as they jumped from wave to wave.

On the spinnaker run home Casio's team drove their skiff hard to record their win and put them ahead of Asko which lost one place (to Fisher & Paykel) just ten metres from the finishing line.

Results:

Pos	Skiff	Elapsed Time	Handicap Place	C'ship Points (after discard)
1	Casio Seapathfinder	1.14.15	5	15
2	Rag & Famish Hotel	1.15.08	6	17
3	CT Sailbattens	1.15.39	3	52
4	Ssangyong Yandoo	1.15.50	1	38
5	Fisher & Paykel	1.17.29	7	40
6	Asko Appliances	1.17.34	9	16
7	Belle Property	1.18.23	2	75
8	Active Air	1.18.43	4	55
9	Club Marine	1.21.25	11	18
10	Omega Smeg	1.23.58	10	59
11	CST Composites	1.25.13	8	77
12	Radii	1.26.04	12	62
13	Barron & Smithers	1.27.53	13	99
14	Fisher Fine Arts Helly Hansen	1.28.32	14	51
15	appliancesonline.com.au	1.31.53	17	52
16	De LOnghi	1.32.15	18	66
17	SX Projects	1.32.36	16	74
18	Panasonic	1.35.42	15	100
19	Barracouta Sails	1.40.26	19	100
20	Hermes/SELS	1.45.10	21	99
21	AAPT	1.46.28	22	51
22	Wentworth Courier	1.48.05	20	128
23	Toshiba	Non finisher		68
24	Noakes Youth	Non finisher		103
25	Maytag	Non finisher		69
26	Southern Cross Constructions	Non finisher		116
	Groupe Sefico
27	Avaya	Non finisher		126
28	Pegasus Racing	Non finisher		34
29	Hurley Palmer Flatt	Non finisher		150
30	Ssangyong New Zealand	Non finisher		118
31	Rosemount	Non starter		140