Please select your home edition
Edition
PredictWind - Offshore App 728x90 TOP

18ft Skiff Australian Championship: Three skippers share Yandoo's national title victory

by Frank Quealey 14 Feb 2024 01:11 PST 14 February 2024

After winning the 2023-24 NSW 18ft skiff championship, Yandoo's owner and skipper John 'Woody' Winning was set to add the Australian Championship to his list of national and international victories despite battling a painful hip problem.

It was twenty-four years since he won his previous Australian championship in 1999-2000 as well as the 2000 JJ Giltinan world championship and a second victory in 2023-24 was definitely possible.

With typical 'Woody' determination, he was prepared to hold off on a necessary operation until after next month's Giltinan championship on Sydney Harbour but, when it became impossible, he was forced to hand over the tiller to another skipper for the rest of the season.

'Woody' will now have his surgery next Monday, 19 February.

His decision to hand over the duties came a short time before Race 1 of the nationals. The new skipper of Yandoo on the day became the 2006-07 Australian champion Micah Lane, who finished second behind Andoo, skippered by 'Woodys' son John Winning Jr.

The following week, 2018-19 Australian 18ft skiff champion, James Dorron skippered Yandoo to victory, then Tom Needham won Race 3 before Micah Lane came back for Races 4 and 5 to wrap up the championship before next Sunday's final race.

It's been a great effort by all three skippers to achieve such an 'unusual' victory and an incredible performance by sheet hand Fang Warren and bowman Lewis Brake to make sure that the team didn't lose any momentum in 'Woodys' absence.

Yandoo's three wins, a second placing and a fourth place last Sunday gives the team a total of nine points from the five races sailed to date. Regardless of next Sunday's result, Yandoo can't finish with a net total (following a discard of each team's worst performance in the series) of more than nine points while her nearest rival Harry Price's Rag & Famish Hotel already has a net total of ten points.

The net points, for the leading ten teams, going into Sunday's final race are: Yandoo on 5, Rag & Famish Hotel on 10, defending champion Finport Finance (Keagan York) 11, Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell) 15, Andoo 16, Balmain (Henry Larkings) 19, Smeg (Nathan McNamara) 27, The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines (Jacob Marks) 32, Fisher & Paykel (Jordan Girdis) 35 and Marine Outlet (John Cooley) on 36 points.

While not surprising that the six top, most-experienced teams in the fleet presently hold the leading six placings on the leaderboard, it would be remiss not to mention the efforts of two new teams this season who are just behind the 'big six'; Smeg and The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines.

Smeg's team of Nathan McNamara, Jed Cruikshank and Jack Taylor have been extremely consistent and are in seventh place, after recording four top-ten placings from the five races sailed so far in the championship.

The eighth-placed The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines team of 16-year-old skipper Jacob Marks, team manager Alex Marinelli and Matt Doyle has been far from consistent over the five races but when at their best have been up with the big-six. In Race 3, The Oak finished on the podium (in third place) and last Sunday, in Race 5, backed it up with a fifth placing ahead of the current Giltinan world champion Andoo.

Adding some further interest to Sunday's final race of the Australian Championship is the appearance of the German Black Knight team (Heinrich von Bayern, Thomas Martin and Andy Martin) who have arrived in Australia early to prepare for the Giltinan world Championship.

The League's spectator ferry will follow the action on Sunday, leaving Double Bay Public Wharf at 2.15pm.

Tickets are available 18footers.com/18-footer-racing/spectator-ferry

If you can't get out onto Sydney Harbour, you can still watch the SailMedia Livestream camera cat coverage of all the racing action here:

Related Articles

The link between two great Australian sports
A unique connection between brute strength and beauty James Joseph Giltinan was one of Australia's great entrepreneurs of the early 1900s, and the man most responsible for creating a unique link between one of the most confrontational football codes in the world and the beauty of sailing. Posted on 25 May
The last 18' skiff champion before one design
Michael Spies won the 1993 and 1995 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championships When Michael Spies won the 1993 and 1995 World 18 footer championships, in his Julian Bethwaite-designed Winfield Racing skiff, he became the last winner of the title before the introduction of the new one-design 18 footer won its first title in 1996. Posted on 14 May
Smeg's 29 years of 18ft Skiff sponsorship success
It all began when a Trevor Barnabas-led team raced a skiff named Omega Smeg-2UE The Smeg Australia 18ft skiff sponsorship with the Australian 18 footers League began in 1996-97 and has continued harmoniously, with many great successes, over the following twenty nine seasons on Sydney Harbour. Posted on 7 May
The 18ft Skiff 'Big Boat Era'
The original 18 footers which raced from the 1890s to the mid-1930s We are all familiar with the modern 18 footers as they speed across Sydney Harbour with their carbon fibre hulls and lightweight state-of-the-art sails and spars but they a vastly different to the original 18 footers. Posted on 23 Apr
A look back at the 2003 18ft Skiff JJ Giltinan
The closest of 76 regattas in the greatest championship The recent JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship regatta produced some nervous moments for the Yandoo team of Tom Needham, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake during the 'crazy' westerly conditions of the last race Posted on 30 Mar
Winnings JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship Day 7
The Yandoo team of Tom Needham, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake wrap up the win The Yandoo team of Tom Needham, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake became the world 18 footer champions after scoring a brilliant victory in the Winnings 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship, which concluded on Sydney Harbour today. Posted on 16 Mar
Winnings JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship Day 6
Yandoo in pole position going into Sunday's final race The Yandoo team of Tom Needham, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake went into today's Race 8 on Sydney Harbour with a two points lead over Finport Finance, its closest challenger to retaining the coveted title. Posted on 15 Mar
Winnings JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship Day 5
A critical race going into the weekend's final two races With just one point separating the two leading contenders for the Winnings 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship, today's Race 7 of the nine-race regatta was going to be critical going into the weekend's final two races. Posted on 13 Mar
Winnings JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship Day 4
Races 5 and 6 were light and shifty Today's wind was light and shifty as it was yesterday, but the results of the two short-course races was vastly different, which has added to the drama of the final three races of the Winnings 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship. Posted on 12 Mar
Winnings JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship Day 3
Light winds and low visibility no barrier for the faultless Yandoo team Two short-course races with rain and light, variable easterly conditions on Day 3 of the Winnings 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship made little difference to the incredible performance being shown by the defending champion Yandoo team. Posted on 11 Mar
Henri-Lloyd Dynamic RangePalm Beach Motor YachtsAllen Dynamic 40 Footer