Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing Club Championship Heat 3
by Adam Lucius 15 Oct 00:45 AEDT
11 October 2025
Crazy doesn't begin to explain the finish to third heat of Manly's club championship on Saturday.
After negotiating a run out tide and a 20-knot wind that possessed multiple personalities, the 24-strong fleet headed for the line with Red Pumps Red (Zoe Dransfield, Fynn Sprott, Jamie Stodart) ahead of Canberra Airport (Archie Cropley, Tom Cunich, Fynn Twomey) and Geochemical Assessments (Nathan McNamara, Jack Taylor, Warwick Taylor). RedPumpsRed crossed the line first but were disqualified after receiving a black flag for breaking the start line after a general re-call.
Canberra Airport - new to the fleet this year - looked a lock for second before a disastrous kite drop while approaching the finish boat relegated it to a distant fifth. That left Geochemical Assessments (GA) to swoop like Olympic speed skater Steve Bradbury, claiming a first club championship win.
Fluid Building, featuring multi-title-winning Australian 16s champion Clint Bowen as skipper, finished second with Botany Access (Chris Thomas, Ryan Thomas, Michael Childs) third.
When asked to describe the fluctuating conditions and wild finish, GA skipper McNamara had just two words: "Absolutely insane. "We had literally every part of the compass out there and it reminded me of sailing on the (Parramatta) river. "The whole race our attitude was they (RPR) are still in the game even though on the start line they were obviously quite close to it. "We treat any boat around us as a contender and had Canberra Airport about 100 metres in front of us when we all dropped at the same time. "They got a knot in their halyard and we were able to go through to the finish line.
"It was good to finally get a win on the board. Last year was an awesome learning experience in such a strong fleet and hopefully this is a bit of a breakthrough for us. "Being consistent is the challenge from here." Consistency has been the cornerstone of Buckingham Marine Services' start to the season.
Saturday's fourth-placed finish - on top of a third and first in heats one and two - has the Daniel Turner-skippered boat outright leader on the club championship leaderboard. GA is second, Modern Concept Construction (Spencer McKay, Chris Williams, Jackson Cranfield) third and Imagine Signage (Nathan Wilmot, Ricky Bridge, Malcolm Page) fourth.
Canberra Airport is back in 10th and still rueing the one that got away. Skipper Cropley said: "We are happy with the way everything is going and the way we sailed on Saturday, but we just have to get the mistakes out of our system.
"Everyone knows it's a competitive fleet at Manly and you can't afford mistakes."
In the 13s, Harken (Heidi Bates/Orlando Sadlik) recorded a tight 14-second win over IMEI (Oliver Ross/Charles Snell) to open up a narrow lead on the pointscore table. Buckingham Marine (Ash Napper/Theo Franklin) is second and keeping them honest after a third, second and first across the first three heats.
The club championship will resume on November 22, with Saturday's Port Jackson Championship next on the agenda.