Former 18ft Skiff world champions John Winning on ‘Yandoo’ and Trevor Barnabas on ‘Omega Smeg’ head the leaderboard after six of the 10 scheduled races for the 18ft Skiff international trophy, being contested in the Bay of Quiberon, Brittany this week.

‘US Challenge’, sailed by last year’s winner Howie Hamlin from Southern California, is still in contention, and the British ‘RMW Marine’ team skippered by Rob Greenhalgh have not given up hope of a late charge from fourth place.

With four light weather races already sailed, followed by two in moderate breezes, many of the sailors are now hoping for stronger winds for the remaining races.

The best lay day story was of boatbuilder Graham Eeles, who specialises in repairs. Having invested heavily in a one-year-old boat which arrived at Quiberon last week from Australia, Graham and his mates Andy and Simon have been very pleased with the performance of ‘Sunday Telegraph’, and they are currently in sixth position overall. On the second beat of race five, they sailed in close to the shore to pick up a wind bend, and collided very heavily with a substantial rock.

With the lay day to follow, Graham took the badly damaged daggerboard to the club bosun’s shed, and asked in his best Franglais if he could leave it overnight, with the intention of repairing it when it had dried out. When he went to collect it, he was amazed to find the board had already been repaired, and he is now shuddering at the thought of a substantial bill.

Results after 6 races (with discard)

1st ‘Yandoo’ (AUS), 16.7 points

2nd ‘Omega Smeg’ (AUS), 21.7 points

3rd ‘US Challenge’ (USA), 27.7 points

4th ‘RMW Marine’ (GBR), 32.4 points

5th ‘White Stuff’ (GBR), 57.4 points

6th ‘Sunday Telegraph’ (GBR) 58.7 points