Race Sponsor: Lazarus Capital Partners, Sunday, 16 February, 2025, Sydney Harbour
Another outstanding victory by the recently-crowned Australian 18ft skiff champion Rag & Famish Hotel team on Sydney Harbour today has sealed the 2024-25 Australian 18 Footers League Club Championship for the highly-talented trio of Harry Price, Max Paul and Finn Rodowicz although there is still one more race to be sailed in the series.
With their usual brilliant boat-handling skills, The Rag team were superb in the 15-18 knot Southerly wind to score a 1m36s win over Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell, Andrew Stephenson and Daniel Barnett) which pushed the winner to the end with their best performance of the season.
Lazarus Capital Partners (Tom Cunich, Josh Feldmann and Paddy Bannon) also put on a great performance to come home in third place, just 7s behind Vaikobi.
Yandoo, skippered by Tom Needham, finished fourth, but had a day the talented team would prefer to forget as a number of unfortunate incidents ruined any hope of a potential victory.
Balmain (Henry Larkings) finished fifth ahead of Team Vic (Scott Cunningham), Smeg (Nathan McNamara), The Kitchen Maker (Lachlan Steel), Burrawang-Young Henrys (Simon Nearn) and The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines (Hugh Stoner).
Rag & Famish Hotel leads the series on 19 points, followed by Yandoo on 43, Balmain 60, Vaikobi 65, Finport Finance (Keagan York) 71 and Lazarus on 74.
Right from the start, the race was spectacular as the fleet battled to the weather mark off Clark Island where Yandoo held a 10s lead over Finport Finance, closely followed by Rag & Famish Hotel, Lazarus, The Oak Double Bay, Balmain, Vaikobi and Sixt (Jacob Marks).
The following spinnaker run to Obelisk Bay is always a wild ride in conditions like today and it wasn’t long before the first drama occured when Finport Finance capsized then Yandoo lost her lead when she was caught in the lee of a large power craft.
Rag & Famish quickly took advantage of the situation and grabbed a narrow 12s lead over Yandoo as the pair dropped their spinnakers and headed for the next mark off the southern end of Shark Island.
Lazarus was third, 50s behind the leader. followed by Sixt, Balmain, The Oak, Vaikobi, Burrawang-Young Henrys and Team Vic. Yandoo were in trouble again when a passing Sydney Harbour ferry took her wind and the team suffered a brief capsize, which cost several placings and critical time.
Vaikobi and Sixt elected to sail to the left side of the course and gained rapidly to move into second and third placings respectively, 40s from The Rag. Lazarus was relegated back to fourth place ahead of Yandoo which had recovered well from her earlier incident.
Once again, the spinnaker run across the harbour to Athol Bay East was going to test the teams as they battled to clear Bradleys Head under their spinnakers. This time it was the young Sixt team that fell foul to the conditions and suffered a spectacular capsize after sailing so well over the first three legs of the course.
The Rag was still 35s ahead of Vaikobi at the bottom mark but Vaikobi’s crew had taken a few seconds from the leader with a great spinnaker run.
The challengers weren’t making it east for the champion Rag crew and when the fleet reached Clark Island, The Rag’s lead had shrunk to just 8s from Lazarus, closely followed by Vaikobi and Yandoo, which was now 45s behind the leader.
More difficulties confronted the fleet soon after when the leaders were forced to avoid an incoming ship and tug boats as they battled to get ‘above’ the group while on the second spinnaker run to Obelisk Bay.
Once again, The Rag’s crew work was brilliant and The Rag’s lead was back out to 55s and the race was practically all over with just three legs of the course left to sail.
While the winner looked clear cut, the battle for the next three placings was sensational as Yandoo, Lazarus and Vaikobi were racing with little between the three teams to the Obelisk mark.
Yandoo’s recovery had the team in a close duel with Vaikobi on the final spinnaker run to Athol Bay East but a broken bobstay ended their hopes of a second placing on the day, but the crew had shown enough form to show they are a real force for the upcoming Giltinan Championship.
With the League’s Season Point Score series nearing an end, Balmain and Rag & Famish Hotel share the lead on 78 points, followed by Lazarus on 80, The Kitchen Maker on 85, Burrawang-Young Henrys on 87 and Yandoo on 88.
Next Sunday will be critical as it is the penultimate race of the Season Point Score. The Australian 18 Footers League will have its regular spectator ferry following the race, leaving Double Bay Public Wharf at 2pm, and SailMedia will live stream all the action.
Frank Quealey
Australian 18 Footers League Ltd.
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