Australian 16ft Skiff Championship - Heat 6

11:37 AM Fri 8 Jan 2010 GMT

'Winner of Heat 6 - 'Netkiosk' - 16ft skiff Australian Championships' Annette Brennan Click Here to view large photo

Australian 16ft Skiff Championships. With clearing skies, an 8-15 knot easterly breeze greeted the fleet for Heat 6 on Friday 8th January.

After a clear start, 'Netkiosk' sailed by Phillip Cooke from the Manly Club, lead around the first mark, followed closely by 'Aero Sails' with Manly club mate Adrian Nash at the helm. By the second mark, the two boats had jumped to a handy break on the rest of the fleet, where places were changing constantly with the shifting breeze.

Coming into the final stages of the race 'Netkiosk' had jumped to a handy three minute lead over 'Aero Sails' who at one stage had dropped back to 5th place. Finishing in that order, 'Fluid Building' sailed by Clint Bowen from Manly, had moved through into third place 30 seconds behind 'Aero Sails' and only 4 seconds in front of the fourth place 'OAS' (Danny Anderson from Belmont).

'Fluid Building's' third place in this heat has guaranteed them winning the Championship for this season. They will sail in the final 7th heat, but cannot be beaten. The main interest in the final 7th heat on Saturday 9th January will be on the minor placings. No less than six boats are within 6 points of each other and all have a chance of being runners-up.

For full results see www.skiffs.org.au

by Michael McMahon