2025 Australian 13ft and 16ft Skiff Championships Day 2 - Movers and breakers
by Mark Rothfield 6 Jan 15:37 PST
4-11 January 2025
With opening day nerves set aside, back-to-back races on the calendar, and a perfect 15-knot tradewind fanning the azure waters off Maryborough Sailing Club, the 2025 Hervey Bay Boat Club 13ft and 16ft Skiff Australian Championships went up another gear yesterday.
There were movers and shakers, groovers and breakers, at the pointy end of the 52-strong 16s fleet as it’s a case of go hard or go home. So willing were the starters in the day’s first race that PRO Hugh Leicester immediately flew the black flag for the restart.
Fastest out of the blocks was Manly entry Modern Concept Constructions. Skipper Kurt Hansen had joked the previous day that you should never win the first race but Race 2, apparently, is fair game.
Returning to sailing after a five-year hiatus, the former 29er and 49er champion and his crew of Christopher Williams and Jackson Cranfield quickly synched with the wind shifts and finished 30 seconds ahead of Nathan Wilmot’s Imagine Signage. A second place in Race 3 then iced the cake.
“I’m not sure we can sail much better than that,” Hansen said. “It was pretty perfect, to be honest, and we can’t ask for much more to start a regatta. This is our first season, and my first time back sailing in quite a few years, but I think we’re gelling as a team and figuring out how everyone operates.”
Imagine Signage, having suffered three separate gear breakages on Sunday, was in the wars again during Race 3, a collision with Botany Scaffold destroying the carbon pole and forcing a race retirement. The crew was subsequently awarded average points – 1.5pts in their case – to retain the yellow leader vests.
East Coast Marine and Sail suffered a similar fate in the earlier race following a rare mistake by skipper Banjo Nicholson: “I screwed up by going too close to a boat, infringing, and breaking our pole. We then had to sail in and swap poles for the next race.” The effort was rewarded with a victory in Race 3, leaving the Belmont skiff well placed once discards are factored in.
It was smoother sailing for reigning national champion Sarah Lee, steering Bosker Build, who showed that an 11th placing in Race 1 was uncharacteristic. Along with crew Peter Mackie and Kurtis Warner, they posted a 3rd and 4th respectively to displace Moonen Yachts from the overall podium.
“We got into the groove a lot better today, we were working a lot better, and it all came together,” Lee said. “It’s crazy to think we’re in third place after the earlier result but we’re happy.”
Tayla Lees and Oliver Barrett maintained their grip on the 13ft Skiff class, posting a 2nd and 3rd aboard The Kitchen Maker. CyberTechGroup and QED round out the top three in the early stages. Harken was adjudged to have broken the start in Race 2 and carried the maximum points, before recouping to emphatically win Race 3.
“We’d actually done well in Race 2 so we were pretty happy to win the next one,” Harken skipper Heidi Bates said. “The fleet is the biggest it has ever been and the conditions have been really nice – it has just been amazing.”
Races 4 and 5 will be contested today, with easterly breezes of 10-15 knots and mostly sunny weather predicted for Hervey Bay. Key regatta sponsors are The Boat Club Hervey Bay, Fraser Coast Regional Council and Fraser Island Boat Charters.
Results here.
The series concludes on Saturday, 11 January. Key regatta sponsors are The Boat Club Hervey Bay, Fraser Coast Regional Council and Fraser Island Boat Charters. More details at the event website.