John Winning Jr and his appliancesonline.com.au 18ft skiff team of Anthony Young and Dave Ewings held on grimly to take out a controversial Mick Scully Trophy race on Sydney Harbour yesterday.

The winning team on appliancesonline.com.au withstood a fast finishing burst from Michael Coxon’s Fiatto win by 16 seconds with Club Marine (Euan Mc Nicol) a further 1 minute 8 seconds back in third place.

Behind the major placegetters were Belle, sailed by rookie skipper Joe Turner, SX Projects (Tom Clout) and Rag & Famish Hotel (John Harris).

After two false starts, the fleet finally got away 30 minutes late over the south-east course.

Gotta Love It 7, Fiat and Fisher & Paykel were well placed on the left-hand side of the course while Ssangyong Yandoo came in close to the starters boat and headed the skiffs which went to the right.

Keith Piggin Real Estate followed Ssangyong Yandoo and reaped the benefit and led the downwind leg after rounding the red windward buoy. Coxon and his crew of Fiat took advantage of an incident which saw most of the fleet caught out when they sailed well above the leeward mark.

Fiat led narrowly from Club Marine and appliancesonline then increased her lead steadily over the next two legs of the course. The race lost some impact following the earlier mark incident but the battle for the lead between Fiat and appliancesonline was gripping.

Fiat led going into Rose Bay but appliancesonline regained the lead with the assistance of the red buoy handicap rounding.

The same thing occurred again on the loop across the harbour and back from Taylor Bay to Rose Bay and appliancesonline took off downwind with a good lead from Fiat and Club Marine.

The new handicapping system was again showing its merit with the positional changes throughout the fleet. At the final rounding mark appliancesonline headed for home with a clear lead but had to hold off a strong challenge from the reigning champion team of Fiat.