Defending champion Rob Greenhalgh (RMW Marine) and his crew of Dan Johnson and Peter Greenhalgh gave an awesome display of power sailing to easily take out the Invitation race of the Ssangyong Giltinan Championship on Sydney Harbour today.

Greenhalgh and his team grabbed the lead early in the race and totally mastered the 20knots north-easterly wind to score a 2mins 48secs win over SX Projects (Matt Felton) with Rag & Famish Hotel (John Harris) a further 13secs back in third place.

The ease of the win must surely have sent shivers down the backs of the other competitors as the RMW team took up where they left off last year.

For the SX team of Matt and Ben Felton and Chris Caldecoat it was an outstanding hit out for the series as they were never worse than second place throughout the race.

The Felton brothers had previously finished third in the Giltinan three years ago and this is their first season back together in the class.

The conditions took a heavy toll on the fleet with broken masts, capsizes and retirements being the order of the day.

All crews will be looking for just a touch less wind tomorrow and some will be hoping for a different rig to give them more time to effect repairs to their No. 2 rigging.

Results

1 RMW Marine

2 SX Projects

3 Rag & Famish Hotel

4 Ssangyong Yandoo

5 AAPT

6 Omega Smeg

7 Maytag

8 Asko Appliances

9 Belle Property

10 Rosemount

11 Adtec Communications

12 Casio Seapathfinder

13 Barron & Smithers-Henri Lloyd

14 Fisher & Paykel Non-finisher

15 Computer Associates Non-finisher

16 Avaya Non-finisher

17 Panasonic Non-finisher

18 CT Sail Battens Non-finisher

19 Team Pegasus Non-finisher

20 Pegasus Racing Non-finisher

21 CST Composites Non-finisher

22 Club Marine Non-finisher

23 Team Mc Lean Non-finisher

24 Churchills Sports Bar Non-starter

25 Fat Face Non-starter

26 Team Morrison Non-starter

27 CST Switzerland Non-starter

28 GP Covers Non-starter