The Rag to the fore

John Harris' team claims race four of the 18ft skiffs' JJ Giltinan Championship

Full results below

Following several days of less than good racing conditions, including yesterday’s postponement of Race 3, today’s Race 4 of the Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship provided spectacular racing on Sydney Harbour.

For the 2001 Giltinan Champion John Harris it was a welcome return to the winners list after a recent run of bad luck.

Harris, his brother Peter and Scott Babbage brought their skiff Rag & Famish Hotel home a narrow 19s winner over Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (Michael Coxon, Aaron Links, Trent Barnabas), with Race 2 winner Project Racing, of the UK, (Andy Budgen, james Barker, Matt Mc Govern) a further 37s back in third place. Appliancesonline.com.au (John Winning Jr.) was fourth across the finishing line but failed to return after being recalled at the start.

Smeg (Nick Press) was placed fourth after this incident, with Slam WA (Grant Rollerson) fifth and an unlucky Gotta Love It 7 (Seve Jarvin) in sixth place.

Progress pointscore has Thurlow Fisher Lawyers leading the series with six points lost, ahead of Project Racing on 11, Gotta Love It 7 on 13, Slam 24, New Zealand’s Yamaha (Scott Kennedy) on 29 and Rag & Famish Hotel on 36 points.

Appliancesonline.com.au led the race to the windward mark by 35s after sailing to the western side of Shark Island while most of the fleet had sailed to the east.

UK’s Rob Greenhalgh, Team PSP/Aust-Asia/Benny, was second ahead of Thurlow Fsiher Lawyers, Team Gill Sweden (Anders Lewander) and a tightly bunched fleet.

Appliancesonline.com.au continued to lead at the end of the following spinnaker run but there was a change when Gotta Love It 7 grabbed a narrow lead from Slam at the Clarke Island mark. Rag & Famish Hotel had recovered well from an early setback to move into third place just ahead of Thurlow Fisher Lawyers, Project Racing and appliancesonline.com.au.

A major change came over the race when Gotta Love It 7 capsized while trying to avoid a Manly Ferry on its regular run from Circular Quay.

Rag & Famish Hotel took over the lead at Chowder Bay and never look likely of defeat although Thurlow Fisher Lawyers put strong pressure on over the concluding leg of the course. Gotta Love It 7 staged a great comeback to finish sixth.

With a number of top competitors carrying points that they are hoping to discard, the overall pointscore will become closer after the next two races.

Protests have been lodged which may also alter some points.

Today’s result sheet is attached, along with four images from today’s race.

Race 5 of the championship will be sailed tomorrow (Thursday 18 February) and the re-sail of Race 3 on Friday.

The last two races of the championship will be sailed on Saturday 20 February and Sunday 21 February.