Defending champion Rob Greenhalgh and his RMW Marine crew showed a much needed return to form to win Heat 3 of the Ssangyong JJ Giltinan International Championship on Sydney Harbour today.

Greenhalgh, Dan Johnson and Peter Greenhalgh once again had to make a recovery after a slow start but this time they had the boatspeed required to take the victory.

RMW crossed the finish line 32 seconds ahead of Casio Seapathfinder (Michael Coxon) with Euan Mc Nicol’s Club Marine a further 1min 57seconds back in third place.

Today’s results have certainly tightened the pointscore, although Rag & Famish’s (JohnHarris) fourth placing enables them to retain the lead on 8.0 points.

Computer Associates (Anthony Young) is second overall on 13.0 points, followed by Asko Appliances (Hugh Stodart) on 14.0, RMW Marine 15.0, Maytag (Tony Hannan) on 19.0 and Club Marine 21.0.

The race was sailed in a south wind up to 15knots and the early lead was taken by AAPT, with replacement skipper Trevor Barnabas at the helm.

AAPT and Casio led the fleet on the spinnaker run to the Beashel Buoy while RMW showed outstanding pace to move through the fleet.

AAPT led Casio and Club Marine at Shark Island but RMW was now only 30 seconds from the lead.

This gap was further reduced to 25 seconds after the downwind leg.

On the third windward beat, the four Skiffs each led at various stages before Club Marine turned ahead for the run to the Beashel Buoy.

RMW was first to set a spinnaker and grabbed the lead over Casio and from that point was never headed – although Casio was only 8 seconds behind as the pair rounded the final mark.

Panasonic (John Winning Jnr) was involved in an incident prior to the start and the damage to the hull prevented the team from competing. This will be resolved after a protest hearing.

Heat 4 will be sailed tomorrow (Wednesday, 23 February) at 3.00pm.

Results (Heat 3)

1 RMW Marine

2 Casio Seapathfinder

3 Club Marine

4 Rag & Famish Hotel

8.0 (1st) 5 Computer Associates

6 Team Pegasus

7 Maytag

8 AAPT

9 CT Sail Battens

10 Asko Appliances

11 Omega Smeg

12 SX Projects

13 Ssangyong Yandoo

14 Fisher & Paykel

15 Rosemount

16 Fat Face Clothing

17 CST Composites

18 Belle Property

19 Churchill’s Sports Bar

20 GP Covers

21 Pegasus Racing

22 Barron & Smithers-Henri Lloyd

23 Team Morrison

24 Adtec Communications

25 Avaya

26 Team Mc Lean

27 CST Switzerland

28 Panasonic