Defending JJ Giltinan champions Honda Marine of David McDiarmid, Matthew Steven and Brad Collins look set to take another title after a fourth win put them nine points clear leader.
The New Zealand 18ft Skiff teams ASCC and Honda Marine shared the honours with comfortable wins in Races 6 and 7 on Day 5 on Thursday.
ASCC of Josh Porebski, Jack Simpson and Dave Hazard, the current NZ champion, easily won the first race of the day, then Honda Marine won the latter race.
With just two more races to be sailed in the championship over the weekend, Honda Marine has a nett score of 10 points, and a discard of only 4 points, and holds a strong grip on defending the title.
In Thursday’s first race, ASCC dominated the latter half of the race to go on to a 2m 13s win over the early race leader Asko Appliances (James Dorron, Harry Bethwaite, Trent Barnabas), with Winning Group (John Winning Jr., Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton) just 12s further back in third place.
Honda Marine tightened the grip on the trophy in Race 7 when the team produced an unbelievable recovery to defeat ASCC by 17s, with the consistent Winning Group another 1m 19s back in third place.
Overall after discard, points with only two more races left in the regatta show Honda Marine on 10 points, Winning Group on 18 points, Smeg 19, Asko Appliances 27, ASCC on 30, and Bing Lee (Micah Lane) on 47 points.
The teams now take a break with racing continuing on Saturday with Race 8, and concludes on Sunday afternoon with Race 9.
18ft Skiff JJ Giltinan Trophy – Overall Positions after R6 & R7, 1 discard
1st Honda Marine (DAVID McDIARMID) 5 1 – – 10 pts
2nd Smeg (MICHAEL COXON) 6 7 – – 19 pts
3rd Winning Group (JOHN WINNING Jr) 3 3 – – 21 pts
4th ASKO Appliances (JAMES DORRON) 2 9 – – 27 pts
5th ASCC (JOSH POREBSKI) 1 2 – – 30 pts
6th Bing Lee (MICAH LANE) 17 4 – – 47 pts
7th Finport Finance (KEAGAN YORK) 8 23 – – 51 pts
8th AppliancesOnline (BRETT VAN MUNSTER) 12 21 – – 58 pts
9th The Oak Double Bay / 4 Pines (ARON EVERETT) 13 16 – – 61 pts
10th Yandoo (JOHN WINNING) 15 8 – – 64 pts
11th thekitchenmaker.com.au (JORDAN GIRDIS) 4 17 – – 65 pts
12th C-Tech (ALEX VALLINGS) 11 22 – – 65 pts
13th Noakesailing (SEAN LANGMAN) 14 13 – – 68 pts
14th Vintec (KIRK MITCHELL) 18 15 – – 71 pts
15th Rag & Famish Hotel (BRYCE EDWARDS) 9 10 – – 79 pts
16th Maersk Line (PERON PEARSE) 7 6 – – 82 pts
17th Birkenhead Point Marina (TOM ANDERSON) 16 14 – – 88 pts
18th Marinepool (HEINRICH BAYERN) 23 5 – – 94 pts
19th Ilve (JONO WHITTY) 10 25 – – 99 pts
20th RMarine Pittwater (SIMON NEARN) 20 19 – – 99 pts
21st Black Dog (JARROD SIMPSON) 22 12 – – 106 pts
22nd Lumix (KATIE LOVE) 19 24 – – 109 pts
23rd Brisbane18Footer (DAVID HAYTER) 25 11 – – 113 pts
24th Quality Marine Clothing (YVETTE HERITAGE) 21 19 – – 122 pts
25th Dal Zotto (JACK SPRAGUE) 24 18 – – 123 pts
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