Strong southerly winds, gusting to more than 30-knots along the east coast of NSW, looked likely to force the abandonment of Race 5 of the 2026 SIXT Spring Championship on Sydney Harbour today, but six boats from the Australian 18 Footers League defied the elements and the event went ahead as scheduled.
The race was critical as it was a part of the six-race series with prizemoney of $6,000 up for grabs.
The Race Starter chose the club’s ‘Southerly Storm’ course and the race got under way on time. Six boats, two with mainsail reefs, faced the starter.
Although the race was staged as a ‘scratch’ event instead of a 3-buoys race, due to extreme wind conditions, the important result was the adjusted time of each team’s handicap which would determine the winner and count towards each boat’s accumulated series score.
With the prevailing winds creating wide margins between the three boats able to complete the shortened course, the placings across the finish line were also the placings for the SIXT Spring Championship points.
Rag & Famish Hotel (Ben Crafoord, Marc Chapon, Max Nearn) took the hours from Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell, Andrew Stephenson, Paddy Bannon) and Sixt (Jacob Marks, Alex Marinelli, Brandon Buyink), which were the only teams to finish.
It was a great effort by all three teams as well as from Club Marine (Emma Rankin), The Kitchen Maker (Jordan Girdis) and Killer Coffee Co (Ryan Ewings), all of which were forced to retire from gear failures.
With just one more race left to complete the 2026 SIXT Spring Championship, next Sunday’s race will determine which crew sails away with the prizemoney.
In today’s race, the six boats were battered from the outset as they ploughed into the seas between the start in Athol Bay and the weather mark off Clark Island. Sixt had jib problems, Killer Coffee Co capsized and the fleet was immediately spread wide in the 30+ knots.
Club Marine, which was leading the championship on points going into today’s race, established a clear lead over Rag & Famish Hotel with three remain skiffs, The Kitchen Maker, Vaikobi and Sixt well back.
The Club Marine crew battled hard to clear Bradleys Head before setting a spinnaker for the run to Chowder Bay North and were looking in control before disaster struck and allowed Rag & Famish Hotel through to grab the lead.
Once in front, the young Rag & Famish crew gave a brilliant exhibition of 18 footer survival sailing as they powered their way around the next three legs of the course, prior to the Starter sensibly electing to shorten the course.
The Australian 18 Footers League has the ‘Royale’ spectator ferry to follow next Sunday’s final race of the SIXT Spring Championship, 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”.
If you can’t make it to 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.
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
Coverage of today’s race is available at 18FootersTV on the club’s website.
Source: Frank Quealey Australian 18 Footers League Ltd.
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