18ft Skiff SIXT Spring Championship Race 6 - Preview
by Frank Quealey 13 Nov 2025 18:28 NZDT
16 November 2025
The leading teams in the Sixt 2025 Spring 18 footer Championship will have to make sure their concentration levels are high throughout the entire final race of the series if they want to get the 'lions share' of the $7,800 prizemoney on offer for the first three placegetters overall.
Prizemoney is $6,000 for the winner of the series, $1,200 for runner-up and $600 for the third placed team. The winning team will also be awarded the Yandoo Trophy.
With only next Sunday's race (16 November) left to sail, the event sponsor's skiff Sixt (Jacob Marks, Alex Marinelli, Matt Doyle) holds an eight-points lead over nearest challengers Club Marine (Emma Rankin, Jed Cruikshank, Brandon Buyink) and Yandoo (Tom Needham, Fang Warren, Lewis Brake).
Top 10 teams presently on the points table are, Sixt on 15 points, Club Marine on 23, Yandoo also on 23, Fisher & Paykel (Brett Van Munster) on 31, Rag & Famish Hotel (Ben Crafoord) 33, Balmain Henry Larkings) 35, Sotheby's Ballard Property (Bec Hancock) 37, Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell) 37, Lazarus Capital Partners (Tom Cunich) 39 and The Kitchen Maker (Lachlan Steel) on 43.
The scoring system being used in the series is one point for first place, two points for second place, three for third, and so on for each finisher. A team which does not finish or is disqualified on Sunday will receive 19 points.
There is NO DISCARD in the series, and so each team's finishing place (ON HANDICAP) next Sunday will be added to the present total to determine the final points and overall placing in the Sixt Spring Championship.
Adding to the pressure, and confusion, for the teams most in contention for the prizemoney, Sunday's race is actually a 'Scratch' race for the Club Championship with the handicap allowance deducted from each team's finishing time to determine all placings.
Early weather predictions suggest a very light Easterly breeze (one of the most unpredictable on Sydney Harbour) will prevail at race time so the time element becomes even more critical, particularly as eight teams in the fleet will have a maximum handicap allowance of 10 minutes.
Series leader Sixt will have a handicap of 6 minutes deducted from her finishing time, Club Marine has a 10 minutes deduction and Yandoo, as the 'Scratch' boat has no deduction.
With several usually top performing teams such as Balmain has a 4 minutes allowance, Fisher & Paykel 10 mins, Lazarus 4 mins, Rag & Famish Hotel 7, Shaw and Partners Financial Services (Keagan York) 2, Smeg (Ash Rooklyn) 8, Vaikobi 7 and Andoo 3 mins, all included in the 'mix' determining the series winner may have to wait until all teams have completed the course and adjusted finishing positions are calculated on the computer.
Having an eight-point lead will make things a little clearer for the Sixt team and they should be able to determine their position on the course as long as they stay upright and free of any gear problem.
Club Marine appears to be the most likely challenger, because of the handicap advantage, while Yandoo's task will be very difficult from the back mark.
The Sixt team manager and sheet hand, Alex Marinelli says his young team are "taking it one race at a time" and will just sail the same way they have sailed since the start of the season.
Adding, "We are sailing well in all conditions and are reaping the reward for the hard work we put in during the off-season. Last season we had a problem with consistency so the present situation is very pleasing."
"We won the Spring Championship in 2023 (our first season together) while sailing for The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines, so it will be good if we can get the win for our new sponsor, Sixt, which is also the Spring Championship sponsor."
The likely outcome of the scratch race Club Championship is a lot less complicated as the current Giltinan world champion Yandoo team has already won the first two races of the championship and now has the regular sheet hand, Fang Warren, back in the boat.
What is most likely to be the highlight of the championship race is the contest for the other podium places with little between several evenly matched teams.
Whatever happens, the Australian 18 Footers League spectator ferry will leave Double Bay Public Wharf at 2pm on Sunday and SailMedia livestream will capture all the action.