18ft Skiff Club Championship Race 2 and SIXT Spring Championship Race 4
by Frank Quealey 2 Nov 2025 01:26 PST
2 November 2025
It was a history-making day for the Australian 18 Footers League on Sydney Harbour today when Tash Bryant became the first female skipper in the club's 90-year history to skipper the winner of a Club Championship race.
Tash, the Australian SailGP tactician, displayed all of her tactical skills in the extremely difficult, light East breeze, which was full of 'holes' and regular changes of direction, to lead home the Yandoo team of Tom Needham and Lewis Brake to win the race by 1m2s from Andoo (Seve Jarvin, Jono Whitty, Cameron McDonald).
Third place went to the young 'rookie' team of Ben Crafoord, Ryan Ewings and Max Nearn, who sailed brilliantly against their more experienced 18 footer teams, to bring Rag & Famish Hotel home just 14s behind Andoo.
Lazarus Capital Partners (Tom Cunich) stormed home, after a disappointing first lap to finish in fourth place, ahead of Shaw and Partners and Sixt (Jacob Marks) in sixth place.
Yandoo's victory in the Club Championship gives the team a score of 2 points, a four point lead over their nearest rival Lazarus on 6 points. Sixt is third on 9 points, followed by Club Marine (Emma Rankin) on 17, Fisher & Paykel (Brett Van Munster) 18 and Andoo on 20.
The corrected times, on handicap, for the 2025 Spring Championship section of the race gave the victory in Race 4 to Bec Hancock, Cam Walker and Ed Swain on Sotheby's Ballard Property. Rag & Famish Hotel finished in second place, followed by The Killer Coffee Co, The Kitchen Maker, Smeg and Club Marine.
Sixt leads the series with a score of 11 points with just two more races to be sailed. The second placed Club Marine has a total of 16, followed by Lazarus on 21, Yandoo 22, Fisher & Paykel 23, Rag & Famish Hotel 24, Sotheby's Ballard Property 25 and Smeg (Ash Rooklyn) on 26.
There is NO discard in the six-race series.
After having to recover from a difficult start when the team were forced out at the boat end of the line, Yandoo's team came back strongly to be a close second at the first weather mark, just 8s behind the new Shaw and Partners Financial Services, skippered by Keagan York.
Bec Hancock and her team on Sotheby's Ballard Property did remarkably well to be in third place, just 25s from the leader, followed by Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell), Andoo and The Kitchen Maker (Lachlan Steel).
The wind was light as the leaders approached the bottom marks. Shaw and Partners was first to gybe off Clark Island and increased her advantage over Yandoo as the pair set off on the second lap of the 3-lap windward-leeward course.
Shaw and Partners went to the left while Yandoo went to the right hand side of the course but there was little between them and the strong charging Andoo as three team rounded the second weater mark.
A better spinnaker set on Yandoo took the team into a narrow lead over Shaw and Partners, but there was again nothing between the pair when each reached the bottom marks.
Again, Shaw and Partners went to the left and Yandoo to the RHS of the course. This time it was Yandoo's tactics that paid dividends as Tash Bryant and her team established a lead of nearly one minute over Andoo, while Shaw and Partners was relegated back into third place, ahead of Lazarus, Rag & Famish, Sixt and Balmain, which had recovered strongly from a poor first lap.
While conditions were not ideal for the action-seeking 18s crews, it gave the new, young teams an opportunity to sail their new boats after being battered during the first few weeks of the season.
Next Sunday (9 November), Race 5 of the SIXT Spring Championship, over a 3-buoys course, will be conducted for the Chris Webb Memorial Trophy. The club's spectator ferry will follow the race and SailMedia will cover all the action.