The Yandoo team of John Winning Jr, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake became the world 18ft Skiff champions on Sydney Harbour today despite only managing to finish in seventh position in Race 8 of the 2026 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff World Championship, presented by The Winning Group, which was sailed in extremely light conditions.
In one of most incredible sailing races you would ever want to see, the Lazarus Capital Partners team of Tom Cunich, Marc Chapon and Tim Westwood produced a brilliant final lap of the course to defeat Sixt (Jacob Marks, Alex Marinelli and Matt Doyle) by 1m17s, with The Kitchen Maker (Lachlan Steel, George Morton and Jerome Watts) just 9s further back in third place.
Shaw and Partner Financial Services-Australia (Keagan York) finished in fourth place only 1s ahead of Queensland’s GC Sails (Scott Cunningham). Australian champion Balmain (Henry Larkings) was sixth, ahead of Yandoo, Shaw and Partners – New Zealand (Eli Liefting), Rag & Famish Hotel (Ben Crafoord) and Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell) to round out the top-10.
With only tomorrow’s final race of the championship still to be sailed, Yandoo has a net total of 15 points, after discarding her worst result. Regardless of the team’s placing in the final race, it can finish no worse than with a final total of 22 points, which is two better than the best score its nearest rival, Shaw and Partners-Australia can achieve.
Shaw and Partners Financial Services-Australia is presently on 23, ahead of the third placed GC Sails on 39 points, and is assured of second placing overall. GC Sails is in a good position to take the remaining podium place but will need to consolidate to stay ahead of Lazarus Capital Partners (46 points) and Sixt (47 points), which are in fourth and fifth placings respectively.
Shaw and Partners-New Zealand is the leading international team, in sixth place, with a total of 52 points, followed by Germany’s Black Knight (Heinrich von Bayern) on 53, Vaikobi on 55, Smeg (Ash Rooklyn) on 61 and The Kitchen Maker on 62 points.
Today’s race was sailed in extremely light wind, which forced the race officer to shorten the windward-leeward course from four laps to three.
From the first windward beat from the vicinity of Garden Island to the weather mark in Rose Bay, the race provided constant changing conditions, leaders and positions throughout the entire fleet.
Lazarus and Shaw and Partners-Australia were early leaders as the fleet headed to Rose Bay but it was the German crew on Black Knight which led by 15s from Lazarus when spinnakers were set to run back to the gates at the bottom of the course. Shaw and Partners was relegated back to third, ahead of Club Marine (Emma Rankin), GC Sails, Shaw and Partners-NZ, Berlin Bears (Philipp Nocke, Germany), Rag & Famish Hotel and Yandoo, which was 1m10s from the lead.
Teams chose many angles in the search for the best wind and by the time the fleet reached the bottom gates on the first lap GC Sails had opened up a 50s lead over Shaw and Partners-Australia and Yandoo. Black Knight, who led at the weather mark was nowhere to be seen.
The next beat was no easier to predict and again positions were changing by the minutes. This time Shaw and Partners-Australia had a 35s lead from GC Sails with Yandoo, now 55s behind the leader, in third place.
Shaw and Partners-Australia retained her lead on the following spinnaker run and headed on the final windward leg 45s ahead of Rag & Famish, GC Sails, Yandoo and Shaw and Partners-NZ. There was a massive group following the five leaders and one of the last teams to round the gate was Sixt.
Trying to describe the final windward leg would not be possible as the positions were changing faster than you could check. Lazarus had gone to the LHS of the course and was now in the lead while Sixt, which had been in about 20th place at the bottom mark was now in second place, 12s from the lead.
Lazarus’ crew handled the conditions superbly and powered away from the fleet on the run to the finish while Sixt and The Kitchen Maker had a great battle to decide second and third place.
If the predicted 14-14 knots NE wind prevails tomorrow we should get a great action of speed sailing and spectacular spinnaker runs.
The Host Club, Australian 18 Footers League’s spectator ferries following tomorrow’s final race, 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 Race 9 will be available on http://youtube.com/video/4zQa9NgMOLM/livestreaming
Race 9, along with coverage of all previous racing, can be viewed on https://www.youtube.com/@18footersTV/streams
Frank Quealey – Australian 18 Footers League Ltd.
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