18fter: Honda Marine wins JJ Giltinan in Sydney
by Richard Gladwell 11 Mar 2018 00:44 EST
11 March 2018
Honda Marine in a gust after rounding the Shark Island mark during 18ft Skiff JJ Giltinan Championship Race 3 © Frank Quealey
Honda Marine (David McDiarmid) made history today on Sydney Harbour with the first ever win by a New Zealand boat in the JJ Giltinan Trophy.
They finished 6th in the final race, Race 9 after a match race with the only other crew capable of winning, Maresk (Josh Porebski). The win is the first in Sydney since the trophy was donated in 1938, and is the first win for a New Zealand boat at any venue since 1973 - a 45 year drought.
The race was sailed in a 14-16kt NE sea breeze on Sydney Harbour. The two New Zealand crews match raced with Maersk and Honda Marine splitting away on the final beat with Maersk taking the North Shore side and Honda sailing on the south side of the Harbour. When they came back Maersk had worked her way into third place but was well behind the two leaders Finport and Asko, putting in the sort of performance that is expected of the Sydney boats but which has been lacking all series.
The margin between first and third was over 2 minutes at the finish and had remained that way since the boats had turned at the top mark. It was a gap that unless both leaders capsized, Maersk was never going to close.
Holding Maersk back into third place was enough to give Honda Marine the title by just a single point.
The win for Honda Marine came after seven attempts for McDiarmid, including winning four of the seven races sailed in the 2017 event but still only finishing third in controversial circumstances which were only finally decided two weeks before the start of the 2018 regatta.
"We're pretty stoked with the result," McDiarmid said on the water immediately after the win.
"We came close in the last couple of years, we are super-stoked", he added, before stepping onto the spectator ferry to receive the winners ribbon from 18ft champion Dave Porter.
With the absence/retirement of a lot of top Australian talent the Kiwis caught the Sydney siders napping, as a result of an intense program following the 2017 event, led by class veteran Graham Catley.
For the young team aboard Maersk, it was a case of so near but so far. Josh Porebski and his crew came into the event with just 15 days of racing in the 18ft class, being the second-string New Zealand 49er crew, after Olympic and America's Cup champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. They are a low budget team, and needed to use the course map mid-race in the early stages of the nine race event just to find their way around Sydney Harbour.
Smeg, the Australian champion who was widely expected to continue the Australian domination of the event, with inconsistency again expected to be the Kiwi downfall, however three double digit places in the none race series proved to be their undoing. That included two 16th places in the 25 boat fleet. One of those was their series opener which adds pressure, but in the past some champions have used such a performance as a reminder to be consistent for the remainder of the regatta.
Top Australian crew was Asko Appliances, who did sail consistently - apart from a 21st placing all their results were in the top seven - and with two second placings. But that was not sufficient to crack the Kiwi dominance at the top of the fleet. They were 13 pts behind the second placed Maersk in overall standings.
The performance of Josh Porebski, Jack Simpson, Dave Hazzard cannot be understated. To come up against some of the top practitioners of skiff sailing, on the home of skiff sailing - where the local knowledge is passed from generation to generation with just 15 days sailing experience in the class, is quite remarkable.
They are sailing the old Yamaha - Dave McDiarmid's old ride - which won four races out of seven last year. So it is not a slow boat. The Maersk sponsorship is more about the support the shipping line gives the class, than the backing of an individual boat.
Their performance is even more remarkable given the range of conditions in the series - from light to strong southerlies and the same from seabreezes - any one of which can be the undoing of many a Kiwi skipper, and also needs a good understanding of rig setup in the changing conditions during a race.
Josh Porebski, Jack Simpson, Dave Hazzard could also have been forgiven frequent handling errors and capsizes, but that didn't happen either. Much as it would have been expected and excused.
The rookies win is a real wake up call for the Sydney fleet who have long dined out on their years of experience and invincibility. While there have been many outstanding sailors to have sailed in the Sydney 18fters and who have gone on to perform at the top end of the sport in other areas of sailing from the America's Cup to Volvo Ocean race and Olympics. However many who have served the fleet well have retired, or gone to do other things, and the Sydney fleet would appear to be in a talent soft-spot at present.
Quite what the Maersk crew's performance does for the class in New Zealand remains to be seen but certainly it should be a clarion call for the Olympic skiff and high performance classes. They should not to expect to be able to rock up and expect to emulate the achievements of Porebski and his team, as that has been tried before and most have found it a lot more difficult than this 2018 result would indicate. However the opportunity is there and if the right moves are made - then clearly the rewards will quickly follow.
In Australia, even as the fleet was still finishing top 18ft sailors Warwick Rooklyn and Andrew Buckland talked of having an inquiry into the Australian performance. "It is a wakeup call for the Australian fleet. None are in the same class [as the top two New Zealanders] speed-wise or handling-wise."
"They (Poresbki, Simpson and Hazzard)graduated from the 49er. Their execution in the class was above everyone else.
[The class] needs to consider what needs to be done." They also noted that despite finishing second, Josh Porebski, Jack Simpson, and Dave Hazzard had a worst placing in the event of 5th, compared to Honda Marine's 6th - and that in itself underlines the consistency of this rookie crew, and their truly remarkable performance.
It is unlikely that the JJ's will leave Sydney, now that the trophy has gone across the Tasman. There is an excellent infrastructure in Sydney and tradition for the event which is vital to retain for the class to expand worldwide. Attracting a 25 boat fleet from six countries, three countries were represented in the top six.
The class has also made a big investment in media coverage and does an outstanding job week in and week out - probably the best in the world on a consistent basis across a season.
One can only wonder if one of the 18ft class stalwarts Bob "Killo" Killick, who sadly passed away in June, would be spinning in his grave at the Kiwi win and Australian performance. Killo, who drove the Camera Cat right until his passing, and provided the lead commentary every week of club racing, would probably let rip with a throaty chuckle and give the locals a verbal kick in the backside - before looking forward to a new and better era in the class he loved and lived for.