18ft Skiffs – German record breaker

Last Sunday’s 15-18 knot North East wind was perfect racing conditions for 18ft skiff racing on Sydney Harbour and ideal for an historic day when Black Knight became the first skiff from Germany to win a race in the 88-year-old history of the JJ Giltinan 18ft skiff World Championship.

Skippered by Heinrich von Bayern, with Thomas Martin on the sheet and Andy Martin in the bow, the German trio were brilliant in the typical Sydney summer wind, and thrilled the large spectator fleet on the way to their record-breaking victory.

With 27 teams representing six countries, the race to the first weather mark was frantic as eight of the world’s best skiff teams fought out a close battle to be first to the Beashel Buoy.

New Zealand’s Shaw and Partners (Eli Liefting) won the race and held a narrow lead over Black Knight with Smeg (Ash Rooklyn), Vaikobi (Kirk Mitchell) and GC Sails (Scott Cunningham) among the closest challengers.

It led to more brilliant, high speed spinnaker action as Shaw and Partners NZ and Black Knight managed their way through the harbour traffic, to race over-powered along Shark Island to the wing mark south of the island.

The German team grabbed the lead and held off the challengers and had a 5s advantage over Shaw and Partners NZ as they headed back to the Beashel Buoy for the second time.

At the Beashel Buoy, Black Knight’s lead had extended to 20s and remained that way over the next two legs of the course before finally heading for the wing mark and run between the islands to the finish line off Clark Island, with a 10s lead over GC Sails.

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 record-breaking victory was a fitting reward for a determined, professional challenge by Heinrich von Bayern which began in 2018.

The Martin brothers joined Heinrich for the 2019 Giltinan championship but it wasn’t until after the COVID-19 pandemic at the 2022 championship that the team really came to prominence with four top-10 race placings for an overall 11^th place in the 25-boat fleet.

They improved to place 9^th in 2023, 5^th in 2024 and 6^th in 2025, sometimes with little time on the water prior to the regatta, before deciding to have a new hull built by Brett Van Munster and new sails by Robert Atkins for the 2026 championship.

The result was 5^th place overall, six top-10 race placings and the record breaking victory in the final race of the regatta.

Can Heinrich, Thomas and Andy become the first German team to win the JJ Giltinan 18ft skiff World Championship?  Maybe we fill find out when they return to Sydney Harbour for the 2027 regatta.

Don’t forget, if you want to watch coverage of all the racing at the 2026 Giltinan 18ft skiff World Championship, as well as all previous racing and interviews throughout the season, go to: https://www.youtube.com/@18footersTV/streams