18ft Skiff Queen of the Harbour 2019

Rag and Famish Hotel finished fifth in the 18ft Skiff Queen of the Harbour © Frank Quealey

Dal Zotto on the way to victory in the 18ft Skiff Queen of the Harbour © Frank Quealey

Corinne Feldman today became the 2019 18ft Skiff Queen of Sydney Harbour when she teamed with Jack Sprague, Tim Narborough and her son, Josh Feldman on Dal Zotto to win the Australian 18 Footers League's time-honoured Queen of the Harbour race.

The annual race, which was first sailed at the Sydney Flying Squadron in 1912, is sailed with each skiff including one female member of the crew.

Dal Zotto took out today's race by 41s from Appliancesonline.com.au (Brett Van Munster, Cassy Kowaltze), with Vintec (Kirk Mitchell, Emma Harrison) a further 11s back in third place.

Quality Marine Clothing (Yvette Heritage, Emma Sills) finished in fourth place, followed by Rag & Famish Hotel (Bryce Edwards, Keats Thomson) and Ilve (Jonathan Whitty, Claire Kowaltze)

The 2019 race was sailed in a 12-15 knot WSW breeze over a two-lap windward-return course, which started in Rose Bay.

Following a morning of continual rain and low visibility, as the race began, the rain stopped and the visibility improved. Most teams elected to go with their big #1 rigs while a few preferred to go with the smaller #2 rig.

After an even start, Vintec soon grabbed the lead and led the fleet to the first windward mark ahead of Dal Zotto, Yandoo (John Winning, Helen Springer) and Quality Marine Clothing.

Positions remained relatively unchanged on the spinnaker run back to the bottom mark south of Shark Island, although Appliancesonline.com.au was beginning to make a move on the leaders.

On the second windward beat, Yandoo, with her #2 rig, was unable to keep pace with the bigger rigs in the leading group and dropped back a little, while the Dal Zotto team took advantage of a more favourable 3-buoy mark to take the lead from Vintec and Quality Marine Clothing.

A shift in the wind direction meant that the run back to the finish was far different to the first lap as the teams had to gybe a number of times before the finish.

Appliancesonline.com.au finished strongly but Dal Zotto's team were faultless and never looked likely to lose.

Dal Zotto team with the 18ft Skiff Queen of the Harbour, Corinne Feldman - photo © Frank Quealey

Overall Results:

The race also marked the end of the 2018-2019 Australian 18 Footers League Season.

Racing in the 2019-2020 Season will commence early in October.