Heat 5 - NSW 18 foot Skiff Championship

by Jill Stewart on 4 Mar 2001 John Harris regained his fine form from the earlier three heats of the NSW
Championship, to take out Heat 5 on Sydney Harbour today.

Sailing with a small rig in a gusty 15 knot South Easterly breeze, Harris,
skippering Rag and Famish Hotel came from mid field to once again show why
he is the preferred sailor to take out the NSW Championship.

The gusty conditions meant there were bound to be capsizes and Computer
Associates, who looked to be in a strong position throughout the first half
of the race, were pushed back into fifth position going into the last leg,
but regained speed to finish in third place.

Trevor Barnabas' Omega Smeg also put up a good fight, swapping the lead with
the Rag throughout the race to end up finishing in second place behind
Harris.

'We were stronger today downwind than we were upwind, so on the upwind legs
we just tried to sail consistently. We had to sail with a small rig today
because of a mixup at the sail makers during the week, so we are happy with
the win.' Harris said after today's race.


Rag and Famish Hotel on 8 points now look in a good position to take out the
NSW Championship with one heat remaining. Their nearest contenders are the
Michael Coxon skippered Sunday Telegraph on 15.75 and Omega Smeg in third
place with 20 points.

The sixth and final heat of the NSW Championship will commence at 2.30pm
next Sunday.

Results:
1/Rag and Famish Hotel/ J.Harris, 2/ Omega Smeg/T. Barnabas, 3/Computer
Associates/ A. Saunders, 4/Express Post/ H. Stodart, 5/AMP Centrepoint/ J.
Winning, 6/ Sunday Telegraph/ M. Coxon, 7/ Sports Illustrated/ S. Ramsden,
8/ Microsoft Visio 2000/M. Felton, 9/Playstation/ T. Whitfield, 10/SP
Systems-Team Alfa/T. Webster, 11/Bell Partners/ M. Page, 12/Total Recall/ G.
Windust, 13/ Vertical Markets/ G. Phillips

NS:
CCA, Gofish, SP Systems-Team KIA, Team Peberdy, Big Foot, Blues Point

DNF:
Team Paterson, Tyrrells Wines, Avaya Communication

Margins:
1st - 2nd: 1 min 21 sec, 2nd - 3rd: 56 secs

Progressive Point Scores (without the drop):
1/ Rag and Famish Hotel; 8, 2/Sunday Telegraph; 15.75, 3/Omega Smeg; 20,
4/Microsoft; 21, =5/Express Post and Bell Partners; 42.