18ft Skiffs - JJ Giltinan World Champs - Race 1

The opening race of the JJ Giltinan 18ft skiff World Championship 2026, presented by The Winning Group, produced a day dominated by light wind strength and a number of changes of direction which made for many surprising performances throughout the fleet, but nothing was going to stop the defending champion Yandoo team which powered to a great victory on Sydney Harbour today.

Starting from the pin end of the line, Yandoo’s crew were unable to cross the fleet and for the first few minutes of the race were in the pack, but like many champions the crew found a way out and by midway up the first beat were a clear leader.

By the end of the race Yandoo’s team of John Winning Jr, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake easily crossed the finish line with a 1m4s victory over Australia’s Shaw and Partners Financial Services, (Keagan York, Max Paul and Tom Anderson).

After a race-long battle between Rag & Famish Hotel (Ben Crafoord, Ryan Ewings and Max Nearn) and Fisher & Paykel (Brett Van Munster, Logan Radford and Tom Quigley), The Rag finally came out on top to take third place 1m10s behind Shaw and Partners.

New Zealand’s Shaw and Partners Financial Services (Eli Liefting) finished in fifth place, ahead of The Kitchen Maker (Lachlan Steel), Queensland’s GC Sails (Scott Cunningham), Australian champion Balmain (Henry Larkings), Lazarus Capital Partners (Tom Cunich) and Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell) which finished in tenth place.

Two disappointments came from the strong German Black Knight team, skippered by Heinrich von Bayern, which finished in 11^th place ahead of yesterday’s Invitation race winner Smeg, skippered by Ash Rooklyn.

On the plus side, the Andoo-USA team of Mikey Radziejowski, David Liebenberg and Daniel Roberts performed above expectations and with a little ‘luck’ could have finished closer to the top-10.

In the conditions, the race officer/starter set a windward-leeward three-lap course, which had an elapsed time of 1:17:33.

In very tricky conditions during the first minutes of the race, Shaw and Partners (Aust), Fisher & Paykel, Andoo-USA and Shaw and Partners (NZ) were at the head of the fleet which was spread across the harbour as the teams tried to find the best breeze.

The experienced Yandoo crew went hard to the left and by midway up the first beat had established a small, but clear lead which enabled Yandoo to lead Shaw and Partners (Aust) by 12s. The young, lightweight Rag & Famish Hotel crew had also been near the leading group and grabbed third place ahead of Fisher & Paaykel as the fleet set spinnakers for the run back to the bottom gates.

Andoo-USA was in fifth place, ahead of Black Knight, Shaw and Partners (NZ) and GC Sails.

Yandoo’s downwind speed was good and she opened up the lead to 25s over Shaw and Partners while Fished & Paykel had moved just ahead of Rag & Famish. Three boats came to the gates in line with Shaw and Partners (NZ) and GC Sails using their greater experience in 18s to both round the gate ahead of Andoo-USA.

After the following beat back to the weather mark, Yandoo continued to extend her lead over Shaw and Partners, which was now to 47. The third boat was again Rag & Famish Hotel ahead of Fisher & Paykel, but this pair were now 1m45s from the lead.

Over the next lap of the course, to the final weather mark, yandoo was 1m20s ahead of Shaw and Partners as the two leading teams headed for the finish near Clark Island where Yandoo crossed for an impressive win and early favouritism to take out her third consecutive Giltinan world title.

Tomorrow’s weather prediction of 11-14 knots SE-SSE wind will provide all the ingredients for action and hopefully the opportunity for several teams to regain their best form to challenge Yandoo.

The Australian 18 Footers League’s spectator ferry will follow all seven race days during the championship and tickets may be purchased through Buy Ferry Tickets

SailMedia will provide a live stream coverage every race day during the 2026 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff World Championship, presented by The Winning Group. The link to Race 2 on Sunday, March 8 is youtube.com/video/Jz3X3Y6LN4o/livestreaming

It is also available through https://www.youtube.com/@18footersTV/streams