13' Skiff National Championship wrap-up
by Adam Lucius 12 Jan 2025 07:01 PST
4-11 January 2025
Manly boat Harken lived up to all the pre-regatta hype and expectation to blow the opposition out of the water and claim the Australian 13ft Skiff Championship by an astonishing 21 points on Hervey Bay.
It was a maiden national title for skipper Heidi Bates (aged 16) and crewmate Orlando Sadlik (18), coming off the back of an equally impressive win in the NSW 13ft Skiff Championships, Harken won five heats, placed second in two others and dropped a 22nd after incurring an OCS (for breaking the start line) early in the regatta.
The first three boats home featured mixed gender crews, clubmate The Kitchen Maker (Tayla Lees/Oliver Barrett) recorded an excellent string of results to finish second, with Botany Scaffold (SophieHart/Hugh Skeen) third. CyberTechGroup.org (Ash Napper/Theo Franklin) was fourth. Manly boats filled nine of the top 10 places, with Noakes 13 (Tom Hughes/Noah Chenhall) the best of the St George entrants in 11th.
Harken's near flawless display in a variety of conditions was a real showstopper in what was possibly the end of the Bates-Sadlik partnership at national level.
"I think Orlando's looking to sail something bigger next year and I will stay in the 13s for a few more years," Heidi said. "We stayed focused in all conditions and communicated really well as well as just trying to have some fun. "We were really surprised (by the final winning margin) because the racing was close all week. "We finished third at last year's nationals and learnt a lot from that and put that into this year. "It's so good to be able to win it this time."
If it is to be Sadlik's 13s swansong, he goes out a national winner after finishing short on his previous two campaigns. He said: "I've had two cracks at the title before so to finally win it - third-time lucky - is great. "We're really good friends and able to problem-solve together while also focusing on our own roles."
Noakes 13 was runner-up on handicap, with Manly's #52 (Zara and Zack Wyatt) third and QED (David Tulk/Gareth Burns) fourth.
Bates was a runaway winner in the female skippers' pointscore.