A double race victory to the Yandoo team of John ‘Herman’ Winning, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake, on Sydney Harbour today, sees the team grab a narrow lead at the half way point in the eight-race NSW 18ft Skiff Championship being conducted by the Australian 18 Footers League.
Going into today’s races, Balmain’s team of Henry Larkings, Tom Grimes and Locky Pryor held a three point lead over Yandoo but now Yandoo has reversed the positions to lead Balmain by just one point.
In today’s first race (Race 3 of the NSW Championship). Yandoo came from behind at the end of the first lap to defeat Balmain by 9s with Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell, Andrew Stephenson, Daniel Barnett) a further 54s back in third place.
Rag & Famish Hotel (Ben Crafoord) finished in fourth place ahead of Sixt (Jacob Marks) and Fisher & Paykel (Brett Van Munster).
In the later race (Race 5), Yandoo defeated Vaikobi by 42s with Lazarus Capital Partners (Tom Cunich, Edoardo Gamba, Benedict McKay) a further 5s back in third place.
Balmain came in fourth, followed by Rag & Famish Hotel and Smeg (Ash Rooklyn).
The progress points at the half-way stage of the NSW Championship show Yandoo on 9 points, Balmain 10 points, Rag & Famish Hotel 17, Smeg 26, Sixt 28 and Shaw and Partners Financial Services (Keagan York) on 29 points.
Each race today was sailed in a mainly 10-14 knot SE breeze over a two-lap windward-leeward course and all teams elected to use their #2 rigs in anticipation of stronger winds prevailing for the afternoon.
In the first race, the Sixt team, along with Balmain and Rag & Famish, elected to go to the LHS of the course and east of Shark Island and gained the early advantage to lead at the weather mark from Yandoo, Andoo (Joel Beashel), Lazarus, Club Marine (Emma Rankin), Vaikobi, Smeg and The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines (Hugo Stoner).
All teams sailed to the western side of the island on the spinnaker run back to the bottom marks where Balmain had grabbed a 17s lead from Sixt but Yandoo was starting to work her way towards the lead.
The race between Balmain and Yandoo was extremely close on the work back to the weather mark on the second lap with the lead changing on four occasions before Yandoo finally won out to lead by 7s as the pair headed for the finish.
Again, there was little between the two teams on the spinnaker run back to the finish in Taylors Bay as Yandoo gained only 2s more to score a 9s victory.
Yandoo was soon in, or near, the lead immediately after pulling off a great tactical move at the start but was just two boat-lengths ahead of the young Rag & Famish Hotel team which have impressed in the early days of their 18 footer career.
Balmain had been recalled for starting too early and this was very costly to the former leader in the series.
While most of the fleet sailed to the west (RHS of the course) to the weather mark, Vaikobi and Shaw and Partners sailed to the LHS and were in third and fourth place, ahead of The Kitchen Maker (Lachlan Steel), Lazarus and Sixt.
The Rag’s team took a narrow lead over Yandoo as the fleet headed back to the bottom marks under spinnaker, but when a Manly Ferry, on its regular run, cut a path through the four leading teams, the race was turned upside down as the crews had to take action to avoid the problem.
The experienced Yandoo team quickly regained the lead and rounded the right hand mark ahead of Lazarus and Rag & Famish. Vaikobi, Shaw and Partners and The Kitchen Maker headed the group at the left hand mark.
Vaikobi was again outstanding upwind and challenged Yandoo strongly and trailed by only 10s at the final mark but was unable to match the downwind speed of Yandoo to go down by 42s at the finish line.
Races 5 and 6 of the NSW Championship will be sailed next Sunday (14 December). The club’s spectator ferry will follow the races and SailMedia will livestream all the action.
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