A look back at the 2003 JJ Giltinan World 18 Footer Championship
by Frank Quealey 29 Mar 2025 23:20 PDT
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, but in reality, the championship was a triumph for the trio as they recorded six wins from the nine races staged on Sydney Harbour.
Naturally, with 76 contests, challengers from 21 countries and conducted over an 87-year time span, the JJ Giltinan World 18 footer Championship has produced some magnificent high speed, high action and close contests by some of the world's greatest sailing competitors since the first regatta in 1938, but none could match the incredible seven-race series on Sydney Harbour in 2003.
With a 28-team fleet full of world, Australian, state and international 18ft skiff champions competing in state-of-the-art boats, the racing in 2003 was expected to be tight and the final result likely to be in doubt until the final race.
Spectators' expectations were soon met, then quickly surpassed, in a regatta which produced many highlights. So what made the 2003 championship regatta so special?
- The winning margin in the championship was less than one point
- There were six different winners in the seven-race regatta
- Three of the seven races were won by 1 second
- Race 5 was won by 1 second and there was a dead-heat for second place
Adding to the drama, the championship-winning skipper didn't believe that he had won the series and had to be convinced by regatta officials once he was ashore.
For the record, USA champion Howard (Howie) Hamlin, who was defending the title he won with GE-US Challenge on Sydney Harbour in 2002, took out the 2003 championship by just 0.35 of a point from Great Britain's Rob Greenhalgh in RMW Marine.
The top Australian team was Tony Hannan's Total Recall, which finished in third place, a further 3.35 points behind RMW Marine.
Hamlin told the media immediately after the contest, "I am still in shock that we won. Going into the last race, it seemed very unlikely. To win, we would have to finish first or second and the RMW Marine team would have to sail their worst race in the series."
Recalling what had just occurred out on the water, Hamlin elaborated, "Luckily for us, the first start is a general recall because RMW got the best of us and we were over early. On the re-start, we scrape RMW off on another boat but commit a foul in the process. We spin a penalty turn, reach down the line, find a hole and get a great start."
"RMW has a bad start and takes a clearing tack to the right. It works and we round the first mark in seventh with RMW in third."
"It looked like it was all over, but Sydney Harbour is brutal and a very hard place to sail, anything can happen. We managed to control our intensity, sail a great race and work our way into second."
"At the last leeward mark, RMW is in fourth and had it won, but they get on the wrong side of a shift and lose two boats on the final beat to the finish."
"We win the worlds by 0.35 points but are confused by the scoring and did not find out that we had won until we hit the beach."
Rob Greenhalgh (RMW Marine), "We were in good shape, but did not have a very good last beat (they were passed by Hugh Stodart's Express Post and Michael Coxon's Casio Seapathfinder) and could not quite put it together."
The first two races gave little indication of what was about to happen when they were sailed in shifty, light south-east and easterly conditions and resulted in clear victories to two former Giltinan champions, John Winning (Yandoo) and Trevor Barnabas (Omega Smeg), who each had his son in the crew.
Winning's Yandoo won Race1 by 42secs from Express Post, with GE-US Challenge in third place, then the Barnabas-led Omega Smeg won Race 2 by 26secs from RMW Marine and Casio Seapathfinder, when Barnabas used his greater knowledge of the harbour conditions in the 10-14 knot breeze to hold off the fast RMW Marine.
Race 3 brought about a dramatic change in conditions when a strong north-east wind, gusting to more than 28 knots against the tide, created a savage chop which reduced the 28-strong fleet to just 14 finishers.
Gary Phillips' Aristocrat team, which was the only one not to capsize, won by 1sec from the fast-finishing RMW Marine, which was recovering from an earlier capsize while leading the race. Omega Smeg and GE-US Challenge were two other teams that capsized while leading during the race.
Hamlin's GE-US Challenge team recovered from a disappointing Race 3 to take out Race 4, sailed in a big sail north-east breeze, by 15secs from a fast-finishing (again) RMW Marine.
What followed was a remarkable Race 5 which produced what must be a unique finish to any type of sailing event in the world.
Sailed in a 15-20 knot southerly wind, GE-US Challenge and Omega Smeg battled for the lead, just seconds apart, over the final two legs of the course, while RMW Marine, taking advantage of their tactical struggle, gained rapidly on the final windward leg to the finish.
When the three teams, led by three Giltinan world 18 footer champion skippers, crossed the finish line, GE-US Challenge was the winner by just 1sec from dead-heaters Omega Smeg and RMW Marine.
With two winning margins of 1sec in the first five races of the championship, who would have believed that it could happen again - but it did.
This time, in Race 6, which was sailed in an 18-20 knot south-east breeze, Express Post defeated a consistent Total Recall by 1sec, with RMW Marine another 1sec back in third place.
Finally, after six top-5 placings, Total Recall broke through for a well-deserved win in the series-deciding Race 7.
Overall Results: (top ten)
1 GE-US Challenge (Howie Hamlin, USA) 3, 13, 5, 1, 1, 5, 2, 28.7 points
2 RMW Marine (Rob Greenhalgh, UK) 5, 2, 2, 2, =2, 3, 6, 29.05 points
3 Total Recall (Tony Hannan, Aust) 4, 5, 3, 3, 5, 2, 1, 32.4 points
4 Express Post (Hugh Stodart, Aust) 2, 7, 7, 4, 7, 1, 3, 42.7 points
5 Omega Smeg (Trevor Barnabas, Aust) 8, 1, 4, 6, =2, 7,7, 50.05 points
6 Casio Seapathfinder (Michael Coxon, Aust) 14, 3, DNF, 5, 4, 4, 5, 61.7 points
7 Computer Associates (Anthony Young, Aust) 11, 6, 6, 7, 6, 8, 4, 70.1 points
8 Aristocrat (Gary Phillips, Aust) 12, 4, 1, 10, 11, 6, 13, 70.7 points
9 Yandoo (John Winning, Aust) 1, 9, 10, 12, 9, 10, 10, 78.0 points
10 Asko Appliances (David Lumb, Aust) 7, 11, 11, 11, 16, 12, 17, 104 points