Michael Coxon and his Casio Seapathfinder 18ft Skiff team successfully defended their NSW Championship when they took out the final race of the 2005-2006 season championship on Sydney Harbour on Sydney Harbour on Sunday.

Coxon, Aaron Links and Nathan Ellis recovered from a slow start in Sunday’s race to defeat Club Marine (Euan Mc Nicol) by 18secs with De Longhi (Grant Rollerson) a further 21secs back in third place.

The win gave Casio Seapathfinder a final total for the championship of 6 points.

Second overall was Rag & Famish Hotel (John Harris) on 10 points. Third was Club Marine on 14 points, followed by Omega Smeg (Daniel Phillips) on 16, CST Composites (Chris Dixon) on 21 and Asko Appliances (Hugh Stodart) on 26.

The race was sailed in a 12-15 knot south-east breeze and as happened in almost every race so far this season, the fleet split into two groups shortly after the start.

It was soon evident that the group on the left-hand side of the course, headed by De Longhi, had done better as the groups met near Shark Island.

At the windward mark De Longhi held an 8 second lead over Club Marine, closely followed by Maytag, Appliances Online, Rag & Famish Hotel, Asko and Omega Smeg. Casio was a long way from the lead.

Club Marine grabbed the lead downwind and continued to hold a 25 secs break over De Longhi when the fleet went around the Clarke Island mark.

Club Marine extended her lead on the spinnaker run but was under pressure from rag & Famish and Casio as they headed for Rose Bay.

Casio had trailed Rag & Famish around the previous mark but had superior height and speed over Rag & Famish going into Rose Bay.

Club Marine continued to lead at Rose Bay with Casio second and Rag & Famish third, but the championship was decided immediately after rounding when the Rag capsized as the crew attempted to set their extra.

Casio took the lead from Club Marine over the loop between Rose Bay and Taylor Bay and held out the Giltinan champion team to take race and championship honours.