18ft skiffs: Club Championship, Race 1 & Sixt Spring Championship, Race 2
18ft Skiffs Club Championship, Race 1
SIXT Spring Championship, Race 2
Alf Beashel Memorial Trophy
Sunday, 18 October 2026 Sydney Harbour
Race 1 of the eleven-race Australian 18 Footers League’s Club Championship was sailed in a light Easterly breeze over a three-lap windward-leeward course on Sydney Harbour today and resulted in another great victory for the highly-skilled team of John Winning Jr, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake on the beautifully rigged world champion Yandoo.
At the end of the three laps, Yandoo crossed the finish line 1m42s ahead of Smeg (Ash Rooklyn, Ricky Bridge and Tom Quigley), which outlasted a group of strong challengers. Third place went to a fast finishing Australian champion Balmain (Henry Larkings, Tom Grimes and Locky Pryor) which finished just 11s behind Smeg.
Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (Adam Beashel) finished in fourth place ahead of Killer Coffee Co (Ryan Ewings) and Rag & Famish Hotel (Ben Crafoord).
Race 2 of the SIXT Spring Championship and Race 2 of the Mondiale VGL Season Point Score was sailed in conjunction with the club championship race and resulted in a win for the Club Marine team (Emma Rankin, Cameron Walker and Daniel Watson) from Smeg and Killer Coffee Co.
After the two races so far this season, the leading points in both the Sixt Spring and Mondiale VGL series are, Lazarus Capital Partners on 9 points, followed by Club Marine, Rag & Famish Hotel and The Kitchen Maker (Jordan Girdis) all on 11 points and Thurlow Fisher Lawyers on 12 points.
Three more teams, Balmain, Killer Coffee Co and Yandoo are equal on 14 points, while Smeg on 17 and Sothebys-Ballard Property (Lachlan Steel) on 18 round out the top 10.
Despite the lack of breeze the race held a lot of interest for spectators as the racing was close and positions changed regularly, particularly over the first two laps of the course.
Rag & Famish Hotel was prominent with Lazarus Capital Partners (Tom Cunich), Smeg and Shaw and Partners Financial Services (Keagan York) at the pin end of the line while Yandoo began her race near the starter’s boat end.
Soon after the start, Rag & Famish tacked and quickly established a clear lead over a closely bunched fleet as the fleet approached the weather mark.
Yandoo worked her way into second place, 30s behind The Rag, closely followed by Thurlow Fisher Lawyers, Smeg, Balmain, Killer Coffee, Lazarus and Vaikobi.
Once spinnaker were set for the run back to the bottom mark, Yandoo quickly reduced the Rag & Famish lead. It was a powerful display in the light air and the Yandoo team finally grabbed the lead shortly after both teams gybed.
The spinnaker run was exciting for spectators with the fleet spread out across the harbor as skippers were looking for the best breeze.
At the bottom mark Yandoo held a small lead, 4s, over the new Killer Coffee Co team which put in a brilliant run to come from 6th place at the weather mark. Lazarus and Thurlow Fisher Lawyers went to the other rounding mark, while Rag & Famish, Balmain and Smeg chose the same one as the leader.
On the second beat, Yandoo went to the LHS of the course while Lazarus and Killer Coffee went to the right, but precision sailing by the Yandoo team made any challenge almost impossible as her lead stretched out to 46s before spinnakers were set again for the following run back to the bottom mark.
There was a great battle for the minor placings going on between six evenly-matched teams and it was the Smeg team which came out on top after an extremely good windward leg. Thurlow Fisher was in third place, closely followed by Killer Coffee, Rag & Famish, Balmain and Lazarus.
Yandoo’s lead was extended to 1m8s at the bottom mark on the second lap and the team, with a strong grip on the race, seemed intent on covering the challengers over the final lap of the course.
The three-time world champion Yandoo combination is in a class of its own at the moment, but there is so much talent in new teams and with close, competitive racing similar to what we saw today, they are certain to begin to put more pressure on the great Yandoo as we move ahead towards the Giltinan World Championship in March.
Race 3 of the SIXT Spring Championship and the Mondiale VGL Season Point Score will be sailed next Sunday. As usual SailMedia will provide a livestream coverage of the racing with expert comments by the team broadcast direct from the race course.
Coverage of the race is available at 18FootersTV on the club’s website.
AUSTRALIAN 18FOOTERS LEAGUE CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP, RACE 1
First step on the way to the 2027 Giltinan Worlds
When Race 1 of the Australian 18 Footers League Club Championship is sailed on Sydney Harbour next Sunday (October 18) it will be the first championship-style race on the way to the 2027 Giltinan World Championship, which will be conducted in March.
Naturally, teams such as the current Giltinan world champion Yandoo (John Winning Jr, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake) and Australian champion Balmain (Henry Larkings, Tom Grimes and Locky Pryor) should feature prominently in the early season races but a lot of spectator interest will centre on the young and other ‘new’ combinations in the League’s fleet this year.
While not having the experience in the 18s of the Yandoo and Balmain teams, there are several teams with incredibly talented young Australian sailors who will improve each week as we progress towards March.
One such team is Rag & Famish Hotel (Ben Crafoord, Marc Chapon and Max Nearn). Ben and Max were part of The Rag’s team which finished 3rd in both the NSW and League Club championships in 2025-26 and 3rd in the Season Point Score.
Marc Chapon has joined Ben and Max this season and will add a lot more experience to an already successful combination.
Ben was naturally not prepared to over-state his aim for the coming season, “Our hope is just to keep on improving every week and do the Rag and Famish proud as Pete and the Calligeros family are such a great long term sponsor that has put so much into the sport, and they deserve a successful team.”
According to Ben, “Marc was fantastic in Garda and I can’t wait to do more sailing with him. He coached Jacob Marks and me a bit leading into the 29er worlds in 2023 and, of course, having Marc on the boat will help us get closer to being a competitive weight.
While the young Rag team may be giving away experience to much of the local and international fleets, they are certainly among the best 18ft skiff teams and will be challenging for a position on the podium at all the major regattas.
Three leading skippers from the 2025-26 season will have completely new crews with them this season and may take a little time before we get to see their best results.
Keagan York (Shaw and Partners Financial Services) lost out to Balmain on a count back last season at the Australian Championship then was again runner-up to Yandoo in the Giltinan worlds and will no doubt be at the head of the pack again in the major championships.
With two new crew members (Otto Henry and Jerome Watts) on board this may take a few weeks but the Shaw and Partners team will still be formidable in the first half of the season.
Tom Cunich (Lazarus Capital Partners) finished 4th in each of the two major championships last season but Tom also has two talented new crew members (Logan Radford and Jack Taylor) on board and will be one to watch in the months to come.
Third skipper with two new crew members is Kirk Mitchell (Vaikobi), who finished 8th and 6th respectively in the Giltinan worlds and Australian 2025-26 regattas. Kirk is joined by Max Vos and Paddy Bannon this year.
Three more successful 2025-26 teams Club Marine (Emma Rankin), Sixt (Jacob Marks and Smeg (Ash Rooklyn) were below their best last Sunday and each is expected to be back to their best for Sunday’s race.
On the other hand, a very good performer last Sunday was The Kitchen Maker, which finished 3rd in Race 1 of the SIXT Spring Championship. This team, Jordan Girdis, Josh Feldmann and Jacob Broom had previously sailed two seasons together but this was their first race back together after a two season break for family reasons.
The League has the ‘Royale’ spectator ferry to follow the racing, departing Double Bay Wharf at 2:15pm, where patrons can follow the fleet, soak up the views, and enjoy drinks and snacks from the on-board bar. It’s “a floating grandstand generations have called their own for generations”.
For those unable to take advantage of the spectator ferry, the professional SailMedia Livestream team will be on the course to capture all the action. The team have three cameras feeding into the livestream production; a drone, a main camera mounted on the roof of the Camera Cat, and a commentary team POV camera.
Content Credit SailMedia:
SailMedia’s coverage provides viewers with all the close up racing action, along with the beauty of the harbour and the city, all backed up by expert commentary from former competitors who are situated on the Camera Cat – in the centre of all the racing action.
The link to Sunday’s SailMedia coverage is http://youtube.com/video/BiMi3-Ei3Zw/livestreaming
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