Winnings 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship – Race 7 Sponsor: Marine Outlet
Trophy: Bill Miller Memorial Trophy – Thursday, 13 March 2025 – Sydney Harbour
With just one point separating the two leading contenders for the Winnings 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship, Thursday’s Race 7 of the nine-race regatta was going to be critical going into the weekend’s final two races, and the weather gods played their part as the fleet had perfect 10-14knot North East wind to race on a sunny, relatively traffic-free Sydney Harbour.
With the pressure on series leader Yandoo to regain the form which gave the team victory in the first four races, the crew of Tom Needham (skipper), Fang Warren (sheet) and Lewis Brake (bow) responded brilliantly to score a 2m13s win over their main rivals in Finport Finance (Keagan York, Matt Stenta, Angus Williams).
Third place went to Marine Outlet (Josh Porebski, Cam Gundy and Charlie Gundy) which finished a further 21s back.
New Zealand’s C-Tech (Alex Vallings) finished fourth ahead of Germany’s Black Knight (Heinrich von Bayern) and another New Zealand team in ASCC (Eli Liefting). Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell) came home in seventh place with Australian champion Rag & Famish Hotel (Harry Price) ninth.
With two more races to be sailed over the coming weekend, Yandoo has increased her lead by one point. She has a net total of 14 points, followed by Finport Finance on 16, Rag & Famish Hotel on 29, ASCC on 34, C-Tech on 36 and Smeg (Nathan McNamara) on 37.
While the race for series victory between Yandoo will be a highlight, the battle for the final podium position between the next four teams will be just as exciting.
Right from the start, after Yandoo won the first cross she was never headed at any stage of the race as the crew were super and the boat had both speed and height on each of the long beats from Clark Island to the Beashel Buoy weather mark.
The Rag & Famish Hotel team gambled on a decision to go with the smaller #2 rig and paid a heavy penalty when the breeze didn’t freshen at any stage of the race.
Yandoo was awesome. She quickly raced ahead of the challenging fleet up the first beat and established a 43s lead over Finport Finance, Black Knight, Marine Outlet, C-Tech, ASCC, Vaikobi, Smeg, Akarana Eatery (Tim Howse, NZ), WLTH (Josh Sloman), Rag & Famish and Balmain (Henry Larkings).
Down the long spinnaker run, around Shark Island, to the bottom mark off Clark Island, it was no better for the chasers as Yandoo extended her leading margin to 59s.
The next seven placings remained the same as they had been at the Beashel Buoy.
Over the next lap of the course, Yandoo again demonstrated her speed over all legs of the course, and at the Clark Island buoy the second time was 1m50s ahead of Finport Finance. Marine Outlet had a great spinnaker run and had moved up into third place ahead of Black Knight, C-Tech, ASCC, Vaikobi and Rag & Famish.
Yandoo maintained her big lead to cross the finishing line with a comfortable win and now goes into the weekend with a good opportunity to retain the title she won in 2024.
Race 8 of the Winnings 2025 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship will be sailed on Sydney Harbour on Saturday (15 March). The Australian 18 Footers League’s spectator ferry will follow the race, leaving Double Bay Public Wharf at 2pm.
SailMedia will livestream all the action, with expert commentary from the course.
Visit www.18footers.com for the very best in 18 foot skiff racing from Sydney Harbour.
Frank Quealey
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