Day 4 of the JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff World Championship, presented by The Winning Group, was a far better day for the 27-boat fleet when a perfect North East breeze, on Sydney Harbour today, replaced the extremely light conditions which forced the postponement of one race on Day 3 of the championship.
The racing was spectacular in the 15-18 knots NE wind and victory results were split in the two races, although the defending champion still holds the overall lead despite not scoring a win today.
In the opening race (Race 4) Shaw and Partners Financial Services-Australia (Keagan York, Max Paul and Tom Anderson) led for most of the race to score a 39s victory over the defending champion, Yandoo (John Winning Jr, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake), with Queensland’s GC Sails (Scott Cunningham, Joel Turner and Dave Cunningham) just another 3s back in third place with a torn spinnaker.
The second of today’s races was sailed in identical conditions and this time the honours went to the Lazrus Capital Partners team of Tom Cunich, Marc Chapon and Tim Westwood who scored a brilliant 6s victory over a fast-finishing Yandoo, with Germany’s Black Knight (Heinrich von Bayern, Tom Martin and Andy Martin) just 5s behind in third place.
With four more races still to be sailed in the championship and discarding of each boat’s worst performance yet to be brought into play, Yandoo leads the scoring with a five race total of 13 points. Fellow NSW team, Shaw and Partners-Australia holds second place with a total of 19 points. Each team has a worst score of 7th placing so any discard at this point will not change Yandoo’s overall six points lead.
GC Sails is presently in third place on 33 points, followed by Black Knight on 37, New Zealand’s consistent ASCC (Campbell Stanton) on 39, Smeg (Ash Rooklyn), Rag & Famish Hotel (Ben Crafoord) on 46, Vaikobi Kirk Mitchell) on 50, Sixt (Jacob Marks) and New Zealand’s Shaw and Partners (Eli Liefting) both on 55 and today’s race winner Lazarus on 58 points.
A number of those boats and others outside that list have very large discards in their totals and the table could look quite different after tomorrow’s two races.
Race 4: Yandoo, Shaw and Partners-Australia and Vaikobi were well placed at the boat end of the start line and when the fleet tacked after the beat into Taylors Bay, it was Viakobi which held a narrow lead over a tightly bunched group.
The beat to the weather mark past Nielsen Park was spectacular in the NE wind with many teams in contention behind Shaw and Partners-Aust, which had raced to the lead with great boat speed in the conditions.
Shaw and Partners turned with a 10s advantage over GC Sails, followed by Vaikobi, Shaw and Partners-NZ, and a group including Black Knight, Smeg and ASCC. Sixt was next, followed by Yandoo which had just completed a penalty turn for an apparent infringement.
Shaw and Partners-Aust led the spinnaker run into Taylors Bay and, despite having to avoid harbour traffic, raced to the bottom gates where she held a 12s lead over GC Sails, Vaikobi, Shaw and Partners-NZ, Black Knight, ASCC, Smeg, Sixt and Yandoo, which went to the opposite gate to the leading group.
Shaw and Partners’ crew work was excellent on the second beat and the team increased the lead over GC Sails to 30s as spinnakers were set for the run to the finish. Yandoo had recovered brilliantly after the first lap and was now in third place and challenging GC Sails.
While Shaw and Partners’ victory was never in doubt, the race between GC Sails and Yandoo was brilliant as the pair raced almost alongside each other to the finish line where Yandoo got the verdict by 3s. Unfortunately GC Sails suffered a torn spinnaker just before the finish line which obviously made the team’s task too difficult against the champion Yandoo crew.
Race 5: Black Knight was prominent in the middle of the line at the start with Yandoo and Shaw and Partners-Aust electing to start at the boat end and Lazarus was the leader at the pin end.
On the long tack across the harbour to Taylors Bay, the fleet was spread wide as several teams had elected to tack early. Lazarus was in the lead on the LHS closely followed by Andoo-USA (Mikey Radziejowski) with ASCC also in contention.
The Lazarus crew were sailing perfectly and held a clear 20s lead over Andoo-USA, ASCC, Sixt, Black Knight, Yandoo and Shaw and Partners-NZ.
Lazarus was just as impressive on the run to the bottom set of gates and, despite a strong challenge by Black Knight, maintained a handy margin as the crew set off for the final beat to the weather mark.
The chasing pack could make little time up on Lazarus although Yandoo was starting to make a move which got her into second place, within 10s of the leader.
Again, the run to the finish was another thriller as Lazarus raced at high speed just ahead of Yandoo and Black Knight to a 6s victory.
Yesterday’s postponed Race 4 will now be sailed tomorrow (Thursday, March 12) as Race 6, along with Race 7.
The Host Club, Australian 18 Footers League’s spectator ferry will follow all races and ferry tickets may be purchased via this link Buy Ferry Tickets SailMedia will livestream all the action from the course, along with expert commentary and viewing of the coverage of Races 5 and 6 will be available on youtube.com/video/8nk8PkikIIQ/livestreaming
Races 5 and 6, along with coverage of all previous racing, can be viewed on
https://www.youtube.com/@18footersTV/streams
Remaining dates for JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff World Championship, presented by the Winning Group, are:
Thursday March 12, 2026 Races 6 and 7, Bill Miller Memorial Trophy
Saturday March 14, 2026 Race 8, Bill Kite Memorial Trophy
Sunday March 15, 2026 Race 9, Ribbon and JJ Giltinan Trophy
Frank Quealey – Australian 18 Footers League Ltd.
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