Casio continues form

Second weekend of the Australian 18 footers League 2005

The Australian champion Casio Seapathfinder team made it two wins from as many starts when they easily took out the Australian 18 footers League Club Trophy on Sunday.

Skipper Michael Coxon and his team of Aaron Links and Nathan Ellis totally dominated the 22-boat fleet to defeat John Winning's Ssangyong Yandoo by 2 minutes, 34 seconds.

Third placing went to the new Rag & Famish Hotel skiff, which was being guest-skippered by ex-Giltinan champion Trevor Barnabas.

The race was sailed in a 15 knot east north-easterly wind over the windward-leeward course.

Casio won an even start but was soon left with a handy lead when Rag & Famish, Maytag (Tony Hannan) and Asko Appliances (Hugh Stodart) all capsized on the first tack near Bradleys Head.

After the first lap of the four lap course, Casio had established a 1 minute 20 second lead over Omega Smeg (Daniel Phillips) with Ssangyong Yandoo close behind in third place.

On the second windward leg Casio increased the margin to 1 minute 50 seconds and further to 2 minutes 30 seconds by the third lap.

The crew were faultless throughout (as they were last week) as they completed the course without further threat from Ssangyong Yandoo.

Rag & Famish finished 6 minutes 15 seconds back in third place, just ahead of Maytag and CST Composites (Chris Dixon).

Many of the new skiffs and teams will be better for the outing and the season is certainly shaping up as another where many different winners will be the order of the day.

Results:

Pos	Skiff	Handicap Pos	Season Point score
1	Casio Seapathfinder	1	2
2	Ssangyong Yandoo	2	25
3	Rag & Famish Hotel	5	28
4	Maytag	4	27
5	CST Composites	3	26
6	Asko Appliances	7	30
7	Omega Smeg	6	29
8	CWL	8	31
9	Club Marine	11	34
10	Appliances Online	9	32
11	Panasonic	10	12
12	Chill	12	35
13	Rosemount	13	36
14	Active Air	14	37