JJ Giltinan Trophy 2004 on Sydney Harbour - Heat 1
by Frank Quealey 3 Jan 2004 01:04 PST
Saturday, 3 January 2004
British 18ft Skiff champion RMW Marine dominated the first heat of the Giltinan International Championship with a brilliant win on Sydney Harbour today.
Skipper Rob Greenhalgh with crewmen Dan Johnson and Peter Greenhalgh were superb as they handled the testing conditions to perfection.
RMW Marine took the honours by 1min 58secs from 2000 champion John Winning in Yandoo with Asko Appliances (Hugh Stodart) another 1min 32secs back in third place.
The race began in a 15 knot North East wind which dropped to around 10 knots on the first lap of the course.
Computer Associates (Anthony Young) led narrowly at the windward mark bu RMW showed superior downwind speed to lead by 35secs after the spinnaker run.
Yandoo had moved into second place at this stage with Asko Appliances third and the early leader Computer Associates in fourth place.
RMW revelled in the conditions to go further ahead on the nest windward leg and turned for the second spinnaker run with a 1min 30secs lead over Yandoo and Computer Associates.
Defending champion Howie Hamlin of the United States (West Marine) was a disappointing 11th - finishing nearly 8 minutes behind the winner.
Other to disappoint were Australian champion Tony Hannan (Maytag) who finished 7th, Michael Coxon (Casio Seapathfinder) 8th and five times champion Trevor Barnabas (Omega Smeg) 10th.
Heat 1 Results:
1 RMW Marine Rob Greenhalgh UK
2 Yandoo John Winning Aust
3 Asko Appliances Hugh Stodart Aust