18ft Skiff JJ Giltinan Championship - Race 9

Honda Marine, JJ Giltinan champion - 2019 JJ Giltinan Championship © Frank Quealey

New Zealand champion ASCC pushed Honda Marine all the way in Race 9 of the 2019 JJ Giltinan Championship © Frank Quealey

New Zealand's Honda Marine 18ft Skiff team of David McDiarmid, Matt Steven and Brad Collins became the Winning Group 2019 JJ Giltinan champions today, when they successfully defended the title they won last year on Sydney Harbour.

Honda Marine completed the regatta with an incredible score of 13 points, which was made up of five wins, two second placings, and one fourth placing.

After a last race battle, second placing overall in the championship, finally went to Winning Group (John Winning Jr., Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton) on 26.6, followed by Smeg (Michael Coxon, Ricky Bridge, Mike McKensey) on 30.

Fourth place in the championship went to ASCC (Josh Porebski, Jack Simpson, Dave Hazard) with a total of 33 points, followed by Asko Appliances (James Dorron, Harry Bethwaite, Trent Barnabas) on 39, and Finport Finance (Keagan York, Matt Stenta, Charlie Gundy) on 57 points.

Not content to sit on the fact that the championship had already been decided yesterday, Honda Marine came from behind ASCC over the final lap of the course to win the last race of the championship on Sydney Harbour today.

ASCC led from midway down the first spinnaker leg and looked a likely race winner, but the incredible Honda Marine team finished too strongly to take out the race by 33s from ASCC.

Finport Finance finished in third place, a further 1m46s behind ASCC, followed by Winning Group, Smeg and Bing Lee (Micah Lee).

Honda Marine led Finport Finance by 12s at the top mark, followed by ASCC, Noakesailing (Sean Langman), Bing Lee, Winning Group, Asko Appliances, The Kitchen Maker-Caesarstone (Jordan Girdis), Yandoo (John Winning) and Smeg.

ASCC then dominated the downwind leg to the south end of Shark Island, then the run to the bottom mark off Clark Island.

Honda Marine was still ahead of Finport Finance, with Winning Group fourth, followed by Smeg, Noakesailing, and Bing Lee.

Winning Goup finished third overall to become the top Australian team in the 2019 JJ Giltinan Championship - photo © Frank Quealey

Over the second lap of the course, the two New Zealand teams continued to lead the fleet as ASCC led clearly from Honda Marine, while Finport Finance, Winning Group and Smeg were close together and battling to become the second and third teams on the podium.

It was on the final windward leg when Honda Marine made their challenge to ASCC and the two great teams turned for home with just two boat length between them.

Overall Results: