2025-26 Australian 18ft skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour - Day 2
by Frank Quealey 18 Jan 00:16 PST
17-19 January 2026
Day Two of the 2025-26 Australian 18ft Skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour today was a historic day for the championship when the German team of Black Knight (Heinrich Von Bayern, Tom Martin and Andy Martin) became the first international team to win a heat of the title in its 114-year-old history.
The German team was superb in the SE wind conditions which fluctuated in strength and direction, taking out both races in a style which marks it as a strong threat in JJ Giltinan Championship to be sailed on the same Sydney Harbour course in March.
In the first of today's two races Black Knight defeated a gallant Brisbane GC Sails team (Scott Cunningham, Joel Turner and David Cunningham) by just 2s in an incredible finish after the two teams had battled hard for the entire race.
The third team to share the battle was another Brisbane team, Big Foot Bags and Covers (Dave Hayter, Trent Neighbour and Elliott Mahar), which finished in third place 36s behind GC Sails.
Shaw and Partners Financial Services (Keagan York) finished fourth, followed by Sixt (Jacob Marks) and Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell).
In the later race, Black Knight again had a great battle with GC Sails for the first half of the race and it looked likely there may have been another close finish. Unfortunately, GC Sails had a gear problem and lost up to two minutes, leaving Black Knight to go on to a 48s victory over Yandoo (Micah Lane, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake).
Shaw and Partners (Keagan York, Matt Stenta and Tom Anderson) finished a further 10s back, ahead of Sixt, the unfortunate GC Sails and Vaikobi.
While it was a great day for the German team, it was a disappointing day for the Day One-winning team of Yandoo. A gear problem on the way to the start of today's first race forced the team to miss the race entirely and was followed by a poor start in the later race which severely cost it any chance of victory.
The racing conditions have been extraordinary over the two days as wind strength and direction, heavy rain and low visibility have played havoc with the fleet.
Despite the conditions, racing on both days has been very close and the performances of both the German and Brisbane teams have been the greatest threats to the strong locals for many years.
With the reduction of racing on Day One, when only one of the two scheduled races were sailed due to weather conditions, there is a potential that three races may be sailed tomorrow to make up the originally planned six-race regatta.
As each team is allowed to discard its worst race result from the final total, current points could be very deceiving. If Black Knight discards her worst score she would lead with a net total of 2 points, ahead of Yandoo on 3, but each cannot afford another disappointing result in tomorrow's races.
On total points from all three races so far, Shaw and Partners Financial Services leads with a total of 9 points, which would be reduced to 5 points, after discard. GC Sails has a total of 11 points which would be reduced to 6 points after discard.
Tomorrow will be critical, particularly if there are three races, to the outcome and finding the eventual winner may come down to the final spinnaker run in the last race.
Racing continues tomorrow when the Australian 18 Footers League will conduct Day Three (the final day) of the Australian Championship. The club's spectator ferry will follow the racing and SailMedia will livestream all the action with an expert commentary team on the course to provide information for viewers: