Another double NSW 18ft skiff Championship race victory to the Yandoo team of Tom Needham, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake, on Sydney Harbour today, has put the 2025 Giltinan champions into a clear lead with only two more races to be sailed next Sunday to complete the series.
In the first four races of the championship, the racing had been close and there was little between Yandoo and Balmain, but, after a promising second place behind Yandoo in the day’s first race, it all fell apart for the Balmain team, which finished 13th in the latter race. A result they will hopefully be able to discard after next week’s two races.
In today’s first race (Race 5) of the NSW Championship, Yandoo defeated Balmain (Henry Larkings, Tom Grimes, Lachlan Pryor) by 28s, with Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell, Andrew Stephenson, Daniel Barnett) a further 1m1s back in third place.
Fisher & Paykel (Brett Van Munster), finished in fourth place ahead of Sixt (Alex Marinelli) and The Kitchen Maker (Lachlan Steel)
In the later race (Race 6), Yandoo’s victory margin was 1m57 from Vaikobi, which put in an excellent performance after being recalled at the start.
Smeg (Ash Rooklyn, Niall Morrow, Jeronimo Harrison) recovered from a disappointing earlier race to finish in third place, a further 1m18s behind Vaikobi. Club Marine (Emma Rankin) was fourth, followed by Lazarus Capital Partners (Josh Porebski) and The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines (Hugo Stoner).
The NET progress points (if each team discarded its worst result to date) shows Yandoo in the lead with a total of 7 points, followed by Balmain on 12, Vaikobi on 22, Rag & Famish Hotel (Ben Crafoord) 27, Smeg 29, Club Marine 32, Sixt 33, Lazarus Capital Partners 36, The Kitchen Maker 38, Fisher & Paykel on 43 points.
Today’s races were sailed in an E-NE and later more NE winds over two 2-lap windward-leeward courses between Clark Island and Nielsen Park with a fleet of 15 boats competing, after Shaw and Partners Financial Services (Keagan York) was forced out with gear damage prior to the start.
The first race produced a close race to the weather mark where Yandoo held a narrow 9s lead over Balmain after the pair had exchanged the lead early on the leg.
Balmain gybed soon after rounding the mark as both team elected to sail a separate course under spinnaker back to the bottom mark off Clark Island. The result, Yandoo extended her lead by just 1s and the two teams headed back to the Nielsen Park mark 10s apart.
The big improver on the spinnaker run was Fisher & Paykel which raced into third place ahead of Lazarus and Vaikobi. Rag & Famish Hotel missed the mark narrowly and had a near collision with Sixt as the two teams battled for sixth place.
The crew work on Yandoo was superb upwind and when she turned for the spinnaker run home, Yandoo had extended the margin over Balmain to 30s, a deficit which Balmain was unable to recover.
The later race started badly for the Vaikobi team, which was recalled after being over the line too early. The Yandoo team, however, was in spectacular form as they powered their blue-hulled flyer away to a 40s lead over the rest of the fleet.
Also impressive was the performance of the second place boat, Vaikobi, which had made a wonderful recovery after the starting incident.
Unfortunately, Lazarus, which was in third place before missing the mark, allowed Smeg, Club Marine, Balmain, The Oak Double Bay-4 Pines and Sixt through before finally rounding in eighth place.
Yandoo retained her 40s margin over Vaikobi on the spinnaker run back to Clark Island, with positions unchanged for the first seven boats in the race.
Once again, on the final beat to Nielsen Park Yandoo was unstoppable as she extended her lead to 1m10s before running out a 1m57s winner and a clear favourite to take the 2025 NSW Championship.
Races 7 and 8 (the final two races) of the NSW Championship will be sailed next Sunday (21 December). The club’s spectator ferry will follow the races and SailMedia will livestream all the action with an expert commentary team on the course to provide the information.
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Frank Quealey
Australian 18 Footers League Ltd.
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