A north-easterly breeze and glorious sunshine gave the perfect backdrop for yesterday’s three 18ft Skiff sprint races in Sydney Harbour – part of the Super Skiff Series. The 18 footers revelled in the conditions, frequently leaping into the air at high speed, with thrills and spills were the order of the day.

Series leader John Winning steered “d’Albora Marinas” to an excellent win in Heat 4, and finished just nine seconds ahead of John Harris on “Rag & Famish Hotel”, with Michael Coxon on “Sunday Telegraph” a further 13 seconds behind.

Any chance of “d’Albora Marinas” extending her series lead even further fell through when she approached the first mark in Heat 5 on port tack, and lost her spinnaker pole in a collision with “SP Sytems-Team Alfa”. Sheet hand Jack Young explained: “We thought we could duck “SP”, but there was a row of boats there. We should have tacked, and we didn’t. When we got to the point of no return, we shoved it head to wind, but the rear wing just caught the end of our pole and ripped it off.”

“Rag & Famish Hotel” strode to a convincing 41-second win over “Sunday Telegraph”, with Greg Paterson on “Vodka Cruiser” taking third place.

Heat 6 saw “Rag & Famish Hotel” and “Sunday Telegraph” take the leading places again, with Trevor Barnabas on “Omega Smeg” in third.

“The Rag” now leads this Club Marine-sponsored series by four points from “Sunday Telegraph”, with “d’Albora Marinas” now 26 points adrift in third position. Three more races are scheduled for today, and a further eight at Geelong next weekend, so there is still a lot to sail for.

Leading positions after six Heats

1. “Rag & Famish Hotel” 119 points

2. “Sunday Telegraph” 115 points

3. “d’Albora Marinas” 93 points

4. “Australian 18 Footers League” 88 points

5. “Bell Partners” 82 points

6. “Express Post” 74 points