JJ Giltinan World Champs 2026 – Final Race

The Yandoo team of John Winning Jr, Fang Warren and Lewis Brake had already won the 2026 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff World Championship, presented by The Winning Group, after yesterday’s race, but officially took out the title for the third consecutive time at the conclusion of today’s Race 9 on Sydney Harbour.

In today’s race, which was sailed in 15-18 knot North East wind, it was the German team of Heinrich von Bayern, Tom Martin and Andy Martin on Black Knight which took the honours when they won their first race in a JJ Giltinan championship regatta since Heinrich first began competing in 2018.

The team handled the conditions superbly, and after taking the lead on the second leg of the course, held off spirited challenges from the fleet to record the historic victory for a German team.

Black Knight finished 1m13s ahead of the second placed Queenslander GC Sails (Scott Cunningham, Joel Turner and Dave Cunningham), with New Zealand’s Shaw and Partners (Eli Liefting, Sam Street and Josh Schon) a further 31s back in third place.

First NSW boat to finish was the fourth-placed Vaikobi, skippered by Kirk Mitchell, ahead of Shaw and Partners Financial Services-Australia (Keagan York), Lazarus Capital Partners (Tom Cunich), Smeg (Ash Rooklyn), Sixt (Jacob Marks), Big Foot Bags & Covers (Dave Hayter, Qld) and Balmain (Henry Larkings) in 10^th place.

Although Yandoo finished well out of the top placings in today’s race she topped the scoreboard with a total of 22 points, followed by Shaw and Partners Financial Services-Australia on 28 points.  GC Sails was third on 41, followed by Lazarus Capital Partners on 52, Black Knight on 54, Sixt on 55, Vaikobi on 59 Shaw and Partners-New Zealand on 63.4 (including a scoring penalty in Race 9), Smeg on 68 and The Kitchen Maker (Lachlan Steel) on 74 points.

New Zealand’s Shaw and Partners won a great race to the weather mark at the Beashel Buoy to lead narrowly from Black Knight, with Smeg in third place ahead Vaikobi, GC Sails, Lazarus, Big Foot and Yandoo.

Black Knight and Shaw and Partners-NZ had a great battle along Shark Island as they approached the wing mark off the southern end of the island where Black Knight got the upper hand to lead narrowly.  GC Sails was also challenging strongly in third place and Yandoo also looked a threat, with her #1 rig, in fourth place.

The German team held off the challengers and still had a 5s advantage over Shaw and Partners-NZ as the fleet headed back to the Beashel Buoy for the second time.  Positions behind the two leaders remained unchanged with GC Sails in third place ahead of Yandoo, Smeg, Vaikobi, Big Foot, Lazarus, Rag & Famish Hotel (Ben Crafoord), Balmain and Sixt.

The beat to Beashel Buoy was decisive as Black Knight extended her lead to 20s over the now second placed GC Sails ahead of Shaw and Partners-NZ, which was 50s back from the leader.

After the second spinnaker run back to Clark Island, Black Knight’s lead over GC Sails was still 22s but the hard charging Queensland team reduced this margin back to just 10s as the pair headed for the wing mark and run between the islands to the finish line off Clark Island.

Once again, the crew work of the German team was first class and Black Knight powered away from GC Sails on a spectacular run to the finish 1m13s ahead of the determined challenger.

The spectacle of the entire fleet finishing at high speed under spinnaker towards Clark Island was not only a brilliant way to finish the regatta, it was one of the best spectacles of the entire season.

Today’s race was also the final race of the Australian 18 Footers League’s 2025-26 season.  Racing will resume on Sydney Harbour during October 2026

Don’t forget, if you want to watch coverage of the racing at the 2026 Giltinan Championship, and all previous racing, it can be viewed on https://www.youtube.com/@18footersTV/streams