Hugh Stodart and his crew of Niall Kinch and Paul Schulz totally dominated the fleet in Asko Appliances to easily take out Race One of the SP Systems Australian 18ft Skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour on Sunday.

Asko Appliances crossed the finish line 3 minutes 20 seconds ahead of Club Marine (Euan Mc Nicol) with Rag & Famish Hotel (John Harris) just three seconds further back in third place.

Defending champion Michael Coxon steered Casio Seapathfinder into fourth place another 18 seconds astern of the placegetters.

The race was sailed in a eight-twelve knot easterly wind and in a tight start two of the favoured skiffs, AAPT (Sean Langman) and Maytag (Tony Hannan) were recalled for going over too early.

Toshiba, Belle Property and Appliances Online led the skiffs which worked the RHS of the course while Club Marine, Casio and Rag & Famish led the fleet on the left.

Halfway up the windward leg Casio held a narrow lead over Club Marine with Asko and Rag & Famish close behind.

At the Rose Bay windward mark, Casio held a lead of more than 30 seconds over Asko, Rag and Club Marine, but as they cleared the wing mark Asko had grabbed a 20 second advantage from Rag & Famish and Casio which were close together.

Positions remained unchanged at the leeward mark although Ssangyong Yandoo had moved closer to the leading group after the second section of the spinnaker run.

After a long hard battle up the second windward leg, Asko was 30 seconds clear of Club Marine and Rag & Famish while Casio had dropped back to fourth, 50 seconds from the leader.

Asko doubled her lead over Club Marine on the long downwaind leg from Rose Bay to Kurraba Point, and most interest then centred on the battle for the minor placings.

The Asko team was brilliant on the final windward leg as they increased their lead to two minutes, thirty seconds as the fleet headed for home.

Their boatspeed and tactics in the fluctuating conditions was superb.

Casio was second around the final buoy, just ahead of Club Marine and Rag & Famish, but her downwind speed was missing as the defending champions were unable to hold onto their position.

Results:

Skiff Elapsed Time Handicap Place Aust C'ship Points

1 Asko Appliances 1.21.27 1 1
2 Club Marine 1.24.47 6 2
3 Rag & Famish Hotel 1.24.50 3 3
4 Casio Seapathfinder 1.25.08 8 4
5 Ssangyong Yandoo 1.25.40 14 5
6 Active Air 1.27.52 2 6
7 Belle Property 1.27.56 4 7
8 Omega Smeg 1.28.00 15 8
9 Delonghi 1.28.16 17 9
10 CST Composites 1.28.41 5 10
11 AAPT 1.28.47 10 11
12 Appliances Online 1.29.33 9 12
13 Noakes Youth 1.31.56 11 13
14 Maytag 1.32.04 16 14
15 Panasonic 1.33.06 12 15
16 Toshiba 1.33.24 18 16
17 SX Projects 1.34.00 7 17
18 Southern Cross Constructions 1.34.23 13 18
19 Rosemount 1.35.43 19 19
20 Aristocrat 1.42.05 20 20
21 Fisher & Paykel Non-finisher 23
22 Wentworth Courier OCS 23

by Event media

- Source from Sail World (Jan 10, 2006) -