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Mark RICHARDS, the helmsman of Wild Oats, brought the boat home some 40 minutes ahead of closest rival Spain's Bribon Telefonica Movistar, but this was still close enough for the King of Spain's boat to beat the Australians by nearly three minutes on corrected time.

Despite a poor start by Colin BEASHEL and his crew on Aftershock, they managed to fight back on the first leg, and were in the lead at the first mark, they continued to build on their advantage until late in the race.

Beashel said, "at the first mark we felt that we were doing what we needed to be doing, but on the last upwind leg the tide gate turned against us, and they caught us up a bit, but the crew worked really hard, and we got away with it."

With the Spanish team, representing the Real Club Nautico San Genjo, taking first place in the big boats, and banking a third in the small boat class, the Australian team from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, have stretched their lead in the series by one point, to hold a six point advantage.

Eddie WARDEN OWEN, tactician on Bribon Telefonica Movistar said with some relief, "we thought we'd won it by a country mile until the end of the race, then weather conditions turned nasty on us as we were coming up to the finish, this race was very much dominated by the conditions, and that weather didn't help the Australians."

Mark RICHARDS, at the helm of Wild Oats was full of praise for his crew, "it was just one of those races, a lot of different wind conditions, a lot of sail changes, the crew did a great job. The boat is sensational, it just glides along, if you work hard it gives you results".

It was a long and tedious day on the water for the crews, sailing under a leaden grey sky, that spilt over onto them from time to time, driven by an unexciting wind that fluctuated between 6 and 12 knots, and clocked from south east, through south, and on towards south west.

The Royal Southern Yacht Club boat Volvo for Life Team Tonic continued their good performance in the big boat fleet, scoring a third place, but with more ordinary performances from their team mate, Dickies Yacht Sales, they are unlikely to feature in the overall results.

Estrella Galicia Dos, of the second Spanish team, representing the Real Club Nautico Vigo, had their first top three result today - taking second place in the small boat class.

Results Race 6 IRC Class
1 Bribon Telefonica Movistar (Telefonica Movistar Sailing Team, Real Club Nautico de Sangenjo, Spain, Ker 55, Jose CUSI)
2 Wild Oats (Royal Prince Alfred YC, Australia, Reichel/Pugh 60, Robert OATLEY)
3 Volvo for Life Team Tonic (Team Royal Southern, UK, Farr 52, Nick HEWSON)
4 Bear of Britain (Team Bear, Royal Thames Yacht Club, UK, Farr 52, Kit HOBDAY/Tim LOUIS)
5 Chernikeeff 2 (Sailability RORC, UK, Farr 52, Peter HARRISON)
6 Chernikeeff (Sailability CCYC, UK, Farr 50, Peter HARRISON)
7 Groupe Paprec (Team Paprec Recyclage, UNCL, Fra, Jean-Luc PETITHUGUENIN)
8 Estrella Galicia Uno (Estrella Galicia Sailing Team, Real Club Nautico de Vigo, Spain, Sydney 62, Antonio VIEJO)

Results Race 6 IMS Class
1 Aftershock (Royal Prince Alfred YC, Australia, Rodman 42, Colin O'NEIL)
2 Estrella Galicia Dos (Estrella Galicia Sailing Team, Real Club Nautica de Vigo, Spain, Sinergia 40, Antonio VIEJO)
3 Telefonica Movistar (Telefonica Movistar Sailing Team, Real Club Nautico de Sangenjo, Spain, Rodman 42, Pedro CAMPOS)
4 Dickies Yacht Sales (Team Royal Southern, UK, Sinergia 40, Nigel BIGGS)
5 Chernikeeff 3 (Sailability CCYC, UK, Sinergia 40, Peter HARRISON)
6 Paprec Recyclage (Team Paprec Recyclage, UNCL, Fra, Sinergia 40, Jean Luc PETITHUGUENIN)
7 Chernikeeff 4 (Sailability RORC, Rodman 42, Peter HARRISON)
8 Dancing Bear (Team Bear, Royal Thames Yacht Club, UK, Sinergia 40, David SCANLAN)

Provisional Overall Teams Results After 6 Races
1 Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club 27pts
2 Real Club Nautico de Sangenjo 33pts
3 RORC 46pts
4 Royal Southern Yacht Club 64pts
5 UNCL 79pts 6 Royal Thames Yacht Club 82pts
7 Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club 85pts
8 Real Club Nautico de Vigo 90pts